Watch the Sky
by twenty3
Summary: Nick and Greg are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. They will have to battle the elements, from storms to sharks, as they struggle to survive; but ultimately whether they live or die is dependent on each other.
1. Paradox

This idea popped into my head and I just couldn't shake it, so I had to write it to get it to stop bothering me.

Nick and Greg are stuck in a Hollywood cliche situation: stranded on a deserted island with no one else around. All they have is each other. This isn't slash to start with, but that relationship may develop as events on the island unfold.

What they will face is unknown; from storms, to sharks, to the extreme heat, but inevitably their biggest obstacle will be overcoming each other.

* * *

><p>The surroundings didn't seem to match the way his body was feeling; it wasn't even close in comparison. He felt like he had just been run over, multiple time, by an eighteen wheeler. Every muscle ached and his head was pounding worse than he could ever remember it having done in the past. His throat was dryer than the Las Vegas desert and his eyes were stinging as he squinted against the bright sun that was shining directly into his eyes. His back was as stiff as a board. Before giving in to whoever was shaking him violently and commanding him to wake up, Greg imagined he was going to wake up under a car or in a ditch or something by the way that his body felt. But as he opened his eyes and became more conscience of what was around him, he noticed the slight bobbing up and down of his body. He opened his eyes out of pure curiosity of where he was, and his curiosity grew tenfold when he found himself looking up at Nick towering over him, his body partially shielding his eyes from the bright sun. When his eyes adjusted to the harsh light, he noticed the clear blue sky and countless palm trees behind the standing man, who appeared to be encased by some large, circular, orange object. Greg was beyond confused.<p>

"Wake up man," Nick said, still gripping Greg's shoulder tightly.

Greg jerked his arm away from Nick and rubbed his eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you? What's going on?"

Nick laughed humorlessly, but offered no other verbal response. He extended his hand to help Greg up, which the obviously sorer younger man reluctantly accepted. Nick pulled him to his feet, and upon doing so, Greg immediately almost lost his balance, both because of the feeling the waves beneath his feet were creating and stunning realization of where they were. Greg released Nick's hand as his jaw dropped. He now understood where they were as everything came rushing back to him. He stood there, rooted to the spot in the orange rescue raft, staring out at the deserted island before him. The white sand stretched out about a hundred yards until it stopped, fading into the infinite blue sea as the island curved around. Greg looked to his left and saw nothing but the vast ocean. To his right he could see Nick, watching him look around, and behind him was thirty more yards of sand that stretched to where the forest began. Greg slowly turned around to look behind him, where there was only about twenty or so yards of sand before the high, jagged rocks shot up out of the water and towered at least twenty feet over the sandy ground. It was only then, after having completely taken in his surroundings, that Greg turned back to Nick.

"Our plane crashed," he said softly, to which Nick nodded weakly. "I remember now. The pilot had to do an emergency water landing because one of the engines failed. The coast guard was there to save us, but there was a storm and there were too many people, they couldn't get all of us. We got in this raft..." he trailed off, not being able to recall anything else.

"We helped that mother and her three kids that were sitting near us on the plane," Nick added. "They were the last people that were brought up in the basket to the helicopter. There were only ten or so of us left in the water. They dropped life vests and the rafts. We climbed in and you passed out almost immediately. You hit your head pretty good when the plane crashed into the water."

Greg reached up and touched his forehead, feeling the welt there from the seat in front of him. "How long has it been since the crash?"

"The plane went down at around 8:30 last night. It's nine in the morning," he replied, looking down at his thankfully water proof watch. "I have no idea how long we've been on the island for, I woke up, saw where we were, and immediately woke you up."

Greg looked away from Nick and back out at the ocean. "How far away from the crash site do you think we are?" he asked.

Nick shook his head slowly. "I have no idea. The current could have taken us in any direction until we hit land. We could be anywhere."

Greg tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but to no avail. "What are we going to do?" he asked, his voice weak and full of fear.

"We're going to be fine," Nick said, trying to reassure Greg and himself at the same time. He was terrified himself, but was able to hide it better than Greg. "We'll find water and make an SOS signal and start a fire and someone will come and find us before we know it. They have to be looking for survivors. The coast guard was there, they know people were still in the water. We're going to be fine as long as we don't panic."

Greg nodded in agreement and started to feel himself relax as he though about what Nick had said. It made sense. They knew there were still people out there; they had to be looking for them. They were going to be fine. It wouldn't be a picnic waiting, but it could be worse. Right?

"Okay," the younger man said after taking a deep breath. "Let's make that signal."

"We should find water first," Nick commented. "We're both severely dehydrated."

"What if a plane flies over looking for us while we're looking for water and doesn't see anything?" Greg asked. "Getting off of the island should be our priority, not setting up camp here. Not yet anyway. We need to signal for help."

Nick shook his head in disagreement. "It's 90 degrees out already and we haven't had anything to drink in over twelve hours. Running around in this heat making a signal will drain whatever water we have left in minutes. We won't be able to effectively do anything until we get water."

"Fine," Greg said, rolling his eyes at Nick's continued stubborn attitude even in the situation they were in. "Lead the way captain," he said sarcastically.

Nick sighed at Greg's immaturity and hoped that they were rescued before they were at each others throats. With the rate they were already going at, they would have had to be rescued hours ago for that to be avoided.

They climbed out of the raft and dragged it up on the beach, well away from the waves so that it wouldn't get washed back out to sea. Then the set off into the forest, which was really just a dispersed settling of trees and bushes. The temperature in the shade dropped at least ten degrees, and they were both glad for the relief from the harsh sun. It wasn't thickly settled, which they were thankful for. Once they had started walking, they both realized that they had almost no energy and wouldn't be able to search for long. Luckily, they didn't have to. About fifty yards in, they came to a clearing in the trees where there were a ten foot tall water fall that crashed over dark rocks before splashing into the pool below. It was larger than either one of them had expected to find. The pool was roughly double the size of any regular above ground pool and was encompassed by the rocks and land around it. It overflowed on the left side, running over the rocks and creating a stream that ran for as far as they could see; probably all the way to the ocean. After taking in the marvelous sight that was before them, they both eagerly crossed over the edge and knelt down on the rocky edge and scooped a handful of water up in their hands. They tested it to make sure it wasn't salt water, and when they realized it wasn't, they both began drinking greedily. They drank from it until they had quenched their thirst, and then some, and then they splashed the cool water over their faces and necks to cool down. Refreshed but still exhausted, they turned away from the waterfall and sat on the cool rocks to catch their breath.

"I can't believe this is happening," Greg said, looking down at the sandy forest floor beneath his feet.

"Hey, it could be worse," Nick said, still trying to remain as positive as possible. "We have clothes and shoes. We have that raft with a first aid kid in it. We have water, and there seems to be plenty of fruit around us to eat. And at least we didn't get separated, ya know?"

Greg nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and at least I'm not stuck with Hodges."

Nick laughed. "There's always that."

They sat there for a few more minutes before they got up and headed back to the beach to build some sort of signal. They decided on a giant SOS symbol made out of fallen trees and rocks; pretty much anything they could find that wouldn't get blown away. Due to the heat, they had to go back and forth to the pool several times to remain hydrated. It took longer than they anticipated because of how large they wanted to make the sign. All in all, it took roughly two hours, and when they were done they had created an SOS sign that was about ninety square feet in size, which they estimated could be seen about four miles high from the sky. When they were finished, they collapsed on the beach. They had long since abandoned their shirts and had rolled the legs of their jeans up as high as they could to make do against the heat. They were sitting close enough to the water that when the waves rolled in, they washed over their feet; but the warm ocean water did little to cool them down. So they sat there, looking out at the expansive sea, and ate a good deal of bananas and coconuts that they had collected from the forest. After having satisfied immediate survival, thirst, and hunger needs, the two men looked over at each other.

"What do we do now?" Nick asked. "Find shelter?"

"From what?" Greg asked with a shrug. "The beautiful weather?"

Nick shook his head. "It won't be beautiful for long. We're on a tropical island, there could be a storm any minute."

Greg knew he was right, but didn't want to entertain that fact just yet. He knew there was going to be plenty other times for Nick to be right. "We will. Let's just enjoy the fact that we're on a tropical beach with no one else around and not stuck in a lab or a crime scene; or anywhere with Hodges, for that matter."

Nick laughed and looked back out at the blue water shining in the afternoon sun. "You're right. There are definitely worst places to be stranded."

Greg was sitting to Nick's right, so when he looked over at him when he was talking he saw the cliffs in the background. He suddenly had a few too many ideas rushing through his head, and Nick could tell by the hypnotic look on his face. Nick looked over his shoulder at what Greg was staring at, then looked back at the other man, frowning in confusion.

"What are you staring at?"

Greg smiled. "The rocks. We should climb them to get a better view of the island. Maybe there's a resort on the other side, or on another close by island."

"Okay," Nick said, laughing slightly. "And when there isn't, what are we going to do then?"

Greg's smile grew even wider. "Then we can jump off the rocks."

He quickly got to his feet and all but sprinted to the cliffs. Nick hesitated only for a few seconds before getting up and quickly following Greg. He caught up to him at the base of the cliff, where Greg decided to take off his jeans. Nick couldn't help but watch the younger man shed his pants, and to distract himself from the confusing distraction of Greg getting undressed, Nick followed suit. Their shirts were still sitting in the sand near their SOS signal, so now they were clad only in their boxers; Greg's grey, Nick's black. Greg was about to climb onto the rocks when Nick grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"What if there are rocks under the water that we can't see?" he asked. Greg frowned, and Nick smiled. "I know you all too well man. You were just going to climb up there and jump, then look around. We should figure out if there's rocks that we'd land on first, don't ya think?"

Greg sighed. He hated it when Nick was right. "Good point," he muttered before turning and heading into the warm water.

Nick followed him in, and it wasn't long before they were chest deep in the water. It got deeper quicker than they thought it would. All they felt on their feet below the surface was the sandy bottom as they circled around the cliffs. As they got to the other side, there were more level of rocks leading from the bottom up to the top, but they deduced that if they stood at the highest point and jumped straight out, they wouldn't land on any rocks and the water was deep enough that they wouldn't get hurt.

"Alright Evel Knievel, let's do this," Nick said as he started to climb the rocks.

Greg couldn't contain his excitement. For the time being, both men forgot that they were stranded on a deserted island and reveled in the fact that they were on what would otherwise be considered a tropical paradise. When the got to the top, they scanned the island, noting that there was nothing on the other side but a little but more sand. It was a relatively small island; only about a half mile across in either direction. In the distance they could see a few other, much smaller islands, none with any signs of life.

"Well," Greg said as he turned and stepped to the edge. "There's nothing left to do but dive in."

And with that, he bent his knees and jumped straight out into midair, his arms flying above his head as he free fell to the waiting ocean below.

* * *

><p>Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I promise not all the chapters will be as care-free as this one; there are many obstacles Nick and Greg are going to have to overcome on the island. As the story develops, you'll also find out where they were coming from when the plane crashed.<p>

Next chapter should be up soon. Reviews are always appreciated!


	2. Finished in a Day

The sun was now at its highest point in the sky and was beating down on them mercilessly. The ocean water was so warm that it was doing nothing to give them relief from the sun, and they both knew that staying out in the sun and heat for an extended period of time was anything but a good idea. So after jumping off of the cliff a few times each to distract themselves from the fact that they were stranded, they grabbed their jeans and shirts and headed back into the forest to the waterfall to get something to drink and cool themselves down.

"How deep do you think it is?" Greg asked, breaking the silence that had settled upon them since they had left the beach.

Nick shrugged. "No clue, couple feet probably. Let's find out."

He sat on the rocky ledge of the pool and then swung his legs over the side. He pushed off against the rocks and let himself fall into the water. His feet his the sandy bottom as he stood, the water coming up a little more than waist high. Greg wasn't far behind him, and after he settled into the water the pair started walking slowly through the water towards the waterfall. The depth of the pool remained roughly the same throughout as they crossed over until they were a foot from where the water crashed down in front of them.

"It looks like this was man made," Greg said as he stared up at the white water.

Nick nodded in agreement. "I've never seen anything like this. We don't have too many of these in Vegas, or back in Texas," he joked. Nick then proceeded to step forward a few more steps until the cold water was pounding over him, finally giving some relief from the sun and heat.

After watching the white water crash over Nick for a few seconds, Greg decided to follow suit. The pressure from the water was intense, but it felt good to wash the sweat and salt from his body and cool down. After running his hands through his hair a few times, Nick stepped back out from under the waterfall and shook the water from his face. He frowned when he noticed that Greg wasn't at his side anymore or under the water. He turned around and looked behind him, but he wasn't sitting on the edge of the pool either. With only one place left for him to be, Nick stepped through the water until he was on the other side, where he found Greg.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked.

Greg shrugged. "Just curious," he replied. "Have you ever seen Jurassic Park, the second one?" he asked with a small amused smile.

Nick was surprised at Greg's question until he realized what he was talking about. "Oh, yeah. When they're behind the waterfall and the T-Rex comes and eats one of the guys."

Greg nodded, and then his smile began to falter. "We should go find that shelter you mentioned earlier."

Nick laughed slightly and shook his head at the other man. The pair got out of the pool, collected their clothes, and headed back towards the beach. As they crossed onto the sand, Greg noticed a small overhang at the side of the cliffs they were now facing. It made for a small cave like covering, completely cut off from the water and far enough from the waves that it wouldn't become submerged during high tide.

"That could work," he said, pointing it out to Nick. They walked over to it and cautiously walked inside. It was about fifteen feet long, six feet across and eight feet high; pretty much the perfect size. "The raft will definitely fit in here, and if we put it all the way at the back we should be out of reach of any storms or anything."

Nick nodded in agreement. "Yeah, this will definitely work," he said. He then turned to Greg with a little smirk. "You weren't a boy scout when you were a kid, were you?"

Greg frowned. "No, not exactly. I wasn't really into the whole group dynamic social thing when I was a kid. I read a lot, which is how I got to be so smart," he said with a smirk.

Nick rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly. "So I take it you don't know how to make a fire."

"That would be a negative. Do you?"

"Not really," he replied with a sigh. "I went camping a few times, but my dad always brought a lighter. My brother and I never sat still long enough to teach us how to make a fire, if he even knows how."

"Maybe there's matches in the raft," Greg offered. "Those things almost always have first aid kits and emergency water a food, maybe there's matches too."

With that they headed back onto the beach and over to the raft. Nick climbed in while Greg stood there, waiting anxiously. Nick found the first aid kid zipped securely into the side. It was a decent size, giving them hope that there would be useful supplies inside. Nick quickly opened it, finding the usual first aid components of band aids, gauze, antibiotic ointment, and a silver emergency blanket. There was also two granola bars and a bottle of water along with scissors and a flashlight. After sifting through all of the contents, Nick sighed in disappointment and looked up at Greg.

Greg shrugged nonchalantly. "Guess we'll just have to make our own fire," he said. "It can't be too hard."

An hour later, Greg was cursing himself for uttering those words. Both Nick and Greg had been trying to start a friction based fire. Being very well educated scientists, figuring out how to do it without ever having done it before wasn't hard. They each found a branch to use as a board and a stick to use as a starter. They gathered tinder and hollowed out a space in the board with the scissors. Then they began scratching and spinning the stick on the dry grass and leaves that they were using, but so far, to no avail. They were both sweating despite being hidden from the sun in their newly found cave. They were shielded from the sun, but it was still hot enough in there to cause severe discomfort. After failing for what had to have been the thousandth time, Nick groaned in frustration and threw his stick and board.

"This is never going to work," he said in defeat.

"Of course it won't if you just give up," Greg replied with heavy sarcasm. "Tom Hanks did it, so can we."

Nick rolled his eyes at the younger man. "That was a movie Greg. You watch way too much television. You gotta get out more."

Greg was ignoring Nick's rant and focused all of his attention on making this damn fire. His arms were sore and he was starting to feel lightheaded from the heat, but he continued to spin the stick as hard as he could. His muscles burned, screaming at him to stop, but he wouldn't. He pressed the stick against the board as hard as he could, and when he saw a spark he thought he was imagining things until Nick shot over to his side with a huge smile on his face.

"It worked!" he exclaimed.

Greg dropped the stick and leaned over the small flame, blowing on it softly as Nick added more tinder. Soon enough, the small spark grew into a decent sized fire fueled by wood and grass recovered from the forest. When the fire was going strong enough to sustain itself, Greg and Nick stood back and marveled at what had come out of it.

"Way to go man," Nick said, grabbing Greg's shoulder and squeezing it firmly. "This is awesome."

"We should use it to make a fire on the beach, a signal fire," Greg thought out loud.

Nick was already a step ahead of him. He went back into the forest and came out with as much wood, leaves and grass as he could carry. He made it into a pile on the beach next to their SOS sign before going back into the forest and getting another armful. Greg joined in, and after a few trips each they had enough to make a decent sized bonfire. They used a branch with leaves on the end to transfer the fire from inside the cave to light the bonfire. It took more patience and careful shielding from the sea breeze, but they were finally able to get all of the tinder to catch and the flames that erupted in front of them sent a smoke signal up high into the sky.

"Someone is definitely going to see that," Greg said, staring up at the smoke with a huge smile on his face.

"Oh yeah," Nick agreed. "We're going to be fine G. As long as we don't panic, stay out of the sun as much as we can, and keep these fires going, we're going to be fine."

"Yeah," Greg replied, "let's do that whole staying out of the sun thing. I feel like I'm about to pass out."

Nick followed Greg back into the cave, where the younger man sat down on the cool sand and rested his bare back up against the rock wall. He closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands for a few moments before he felt Nick nudge him with something. He opened his eyes and saw the Texan reaching out with the bottle of water in his hand.

"We should save that," Greg said, shaking his head.

"What difference does it make?" Nick asked. "We have all the water we need from the waterfall. We can fill this up whenever we want, it's just one bottle." He didn't want to outright admit it, but he was worried about Greg. The bruise on his head was showing more clearly now, and it was clear it was affecting him. "Just drink it, you need it," he added, forcing the open bottle into Greg's hand.

"Thanks," Greg replied as he took a long drink from the bottle before handing it back to Nick. The older man took a quick drink before giving the rest back to Greg. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know," Nick replied. "Get some more food and rest I guess. There's really nothing else for us to do."

"Except wait," Greg added, closing his eyes again. Nick watched him closely to make sure he wasn't going to pass out. He was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Waiting is always the worst whenever something happens."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"Like when you were kidnapped. Waiting to find out if Gordon was going to tell us where you were or not was the worst feeling ever. And then we had to wait longer to find you and didn't know if you were going to be dead or alive." Nick didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. "And then Sara got kidnapped too, waiting to find her was just as bad. And then you were shot. Then blown up. Then blown up again. All those times I remember Brass or Catherine telling me what happened, and then I had to wait to find out if you were going to die or not. It really kind of sucked."

"It wasn't a cake walk when you got attacked by that gang either," Nick said softly. Greg opened his eyes and looked over at Nick, who was still watching him intently. "I remember processing the scene with Warrick. Some of the guys that had helped do it were hanging around the crime scene, taunting us. I punched the head guy, that 'Pig' idiot because he wouldn't stop talking about what they had done to you."

Greg shook his head slowly. "I didn't know that."

Nick laughed humorlessly. "I should have shot him."

Greg closed his eyes again, but their conversation still wasn't over. "I don't know if I ever told you after any of it happened, but I'm glad nothing bad ever happened to you. It wouldn't be the same without you around to annoy me all the time."

Again, Nick was at a loss for words. Maybe it was their current predicament that was bringing this about, but him and Greg had never had this type of conversation with one another before. They were good friends and hung out outside of work and all that, but they weren't the type of friends to have heart to heart talks like this. Neither one would admit it, but they were both glad that they were apparently on their way to becoming that type of friends.

"Thanks G," Nick replied, feeling like he had to say something.

But Greg made no indication that he had heard Nick's response. He hadn't fallen asleep yet, but Nick guessed that his head was hurting him enough at this point that he was content to sit in the cool darkness of the cave and rest for a while. After about an hour or so, most of which Greg did in fact sleep while Nick tried to handle all of the racing thoughts scattering his brain, Greg opened his eyes again and looked over at Nick.

"Do you really think someone is going to find us?" he asked.

Nick jumped slightly at the sudden voice. All he had heard for the last hour was the calming sound of the waves crashing into the shore and the rustle of the palm trees from the breeze. He was so lost in thought that he hadn't even realized that Greg was awake.

"Yeah, I do," he replied. "I bet Russell and Finn are already fighting over who gets to head the search team."

Greg smiled at the thought. "They would have killed each other by now if they were in our position."

They fell into a general conversation about their team and friends back in Vegas and how each of them would react in their current situation. They both agreed that Morgan and Hodges would be the most interesting pair to see stuck on this island and imagined Morgan literally drawing a line in the sand to separate herself from the trace technician. They spent the rest of the day gathering as much food as they could and staying around the waterfall so that they could be sure to drink as much water as possible to stay well hydrated. They collected plenty of wood to make sure that the bonfire on the beach would last through the night as well as being able to maintain the fire in the cave for warmth. The sun began to set while they were still in the forest, so they headed back to the cave before total darkness settled on the island. They nestled the raft the farthest back in the cave that they could and depending on the fire for light as opposed to wasting the battery of the flashlight. After eating some more fruit, and both being utterly exhausted, there was nothing left for them to do other than try and get some sleep.

The raft was more than big enough to accommodate both of them comfortably, and yet they settled into it relatively close to one another. Not close enough that they were touching, but close enough so that if one of them moved even slightly, the other definitely felt it more than just from the raft shifting. With the silver emergency blanket stretched over both of them to make sure they stayed warm enough overnight, they both laid completely still in the darkness and quiet of the cave, watching the light cast by the fire dancing on the dark ceiling above them.

"Greg?" Nick asked quietly, unsure if the other man had fallen asleep or not yet.

"Yeah?" Greg replied instantly. He was relieved that Nick was also apparently unable to fall asleep. The events of their first day had kept them fairly distracted from the reality of their situation; but now that night had settled over the island and they were about to sleep in a raft in a cave, the realization was setting in, and it was a very unsettling realization at that.

"I know our situation could technically be worse, but I'm glad I'm not alone here. I'm glad you got stuck here with me," Nick said, his Texan accent thick and highlighting his sincerity.

Greg was glad that it was so dark in the cave so that Nick couldn't see how widely he was smiling at what the other man had just said. "You're welcome," he replied coolly, trying not to act like an excited dorky little kid who gets to hang out with the cooler popular kid.

Nick smiled himself as he finally closed his eyes. He found it comforting to be able to sense Greg's warm body next to his, easing the tension of their situation. He would have been surprised to learn that Greg felt the same way; surprised as well as excited.


	3. Real As It Gets

Greg was awake before he opened his eyes. He was hoping that the events of the previous day were a dream and not reality, so he kept his eyes closed to try and figure out where he was without looking around. The firm surface that he was laying on told Greg that he was in the raft, in the cave, still on the island, but he didn't want to believe it. His back was sore and his head was still killing him, which only added to his frustration. Eyes still closed, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. As he inhaled he was met with the scent that he immediately recognized as Nick Stokes. Having worked with the other man for so long, often times in close quarters, Greg could recognize it anywhere. He opened his eyes slowly and his heart fluttered slightly at how close he was laying to Nick. The older man was to his right, still sleeping peacefully. Nick's head was turned slightly towards Greg. He watched as Nick's right hand that was resting on his stomach slowly moved up and down with his steady breathing. Greg realized that his head had practically been using Nick's left shoulder as a pillow, and upon noticing that Greg decided it was time to get up. He slowly and silently stood and stole one more glance at the still sleeping Nick before exiting the raft. He grabbed a banana from their food pile and headed out onto the beach, settling into the warm sand under the early morning sun, staring out at the bright blue ocean.

It wasn't that long before he heard Nick walking down towards him, but he didn't turn around for fear that he would look too excited to see him coming. He didn't know why he would look excited, or why he would care if Nick thought that, but instead of trying to figure that out he just continued to sit there. It wasn't until Nick sat down on the sand to Greg's left that he looked over at the other man.

"Sleep well?" Greg asked.

Nick shrugged. "I guess. Not too bad. You?"

"That raft isn't too bad," he replied. "The fire's are still going strong too," he added, jerking his head over his shoulder at the bonfire still ablaze on the beach.

Nick nodded slightly. "How's your head feeling?" he asked.

"Still a little headache, but nothing too bad," Greg responded.

"You didn't look too good for a while yesterday," Nick commented, seemingly more to himself than Greg.

"Gee, thanks," Greg said sarcastically.

He turned back to look out at the ocean, his dark brown eyes scanning the horizon hopefully. Nick watched him watching the ocean for a few minutes before he looked out as well, seeing nothing but the blue sea stretching until it met the blue sky in a perfectly straight line that they both knew was unreachable. Somewhere on the way to reaching that line was the way to getting home again, but they both silently understood that trying to get off the island was infinitely more dangerous than waiting there to be rescued.

"What are you watching the ocean for?" Nick asked. Greg turned to him to respond, but the older man spoke again before he could. "That's not where they're going to come from," he added, speaking of anyone who was looking for them, or anyone else for that matter. Nick turned his gaze up toward the cloudless sky where he could see nothing but blue. "You should watch the sky."

With that he stood up and started walking away from Greg. Without thinking too much about what Nick had said, because he had been right again, he turned and called after him. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm thirsty," Nick replied without stopping or turning around.

Greg got up and ran after him, catching up with him just as he was about to cross into the forest. "Well you shouldn't go by yourself, neither one of us should."

Nick stopped and looked at Greg with an amused smile. "Why not?"

"Well, what if you get hurt or something?" Greg offered. "Fall and hit your head or get attacked by something? One of our huge benefits right now is that we're stuck here together so we won't go quite as insane as fast and if something does happen to us, someone will at least know about it and be able to help."

"Okay," Nick agreed with a nod of his head. "Then come with me."

"We shouldn't be out of sight from each other," Greg continued as they made their way to the waterfall. "Just in case, ya know? What if you go to get something to drink and fall in and start drowning, and I'm on the beach with the fire or something and I don't know? It's not safe."

"Alright," Nick said with a small laugh, but his smile faded when Greg stopped short.

"That's how you got kidnapped," the younger man said softly. He had fallen a few steps behind Nick, so when he spoke, it was to the Texan's back. Nick turned around slowly to face Greg. "And how I got beat up, and how Warrick was killed. We have to look out for each other here, we have to trust each other."

"I trust you Greg," Nick said. He smiled again to ease the building tension. "I won't let you out of my sight, I promise."

Greg nodded once before continuing on the way to the waterfall. Nick stood in place for a few more seconds, watching Greg as he passed in front of him. In the last twenty-four hours, he was already seeing a completely different side to the other man. He had started to see some of it in the days leading up to them being stranded on the island, but now it appeared Greg's true colors were really coming through. And Nick liked that.

They drank as much as they could from the waterfall before heading back to the beach. They ate fruit on their way and collected more tinder that they threw on the fire to keep it going strong. They then opted for playing hangman and tic-tac-toe in the sand to try and pass the time. After Greg beat him for the fifth straight time, Nick sighed and he shook his head and looked up at the sky out of compulsive habit at this point. When he turned his attention back to the shore, a bright glint of something reflecting from the ocean caught his eye. He looked out at the water, trying to figure out what it was.

"What are you watching the water for?" Greg asked, mocking Nick from before.

Nick didn't reply. His eyes were fixated on the reflection in the water that was slowly getting closer and closer to the beach, apparently riding the waves in. Greg stopped asking Nick what he was looking at because the other man wasn't replying and instead looked for himself. He could only assume that Nick was staring at the glinting in the ocean because there was nothing else to look at.

"What do you think it is?" Nick finally spoke.

Greg shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe debris from the plane or something? Maybe we're close to the crash sight."

Again, Nick didn't reply. He instead stood up slowly and started walking toward the water. Greg's eyes flicked back and forth between Nick and the shining object, noting how quickly it was nearing them. Nick apparently didn't want to wait and see if whatever it was would eventually wash up on shore; he opted for going right into the water to find out for himself. Greg watched as he waded into the water, with his clothes still on, until finally it was too deep and he had to swim the last few feet until he reached the reflective object. Nick paused when he got to it for almost a whole minute, making Greg very nervous for those sixty seconds. Finally, Nick turned around and began swimming back to shore, tugging the object with him

It wasn't until Nick was completely out of the water and standing on the beach that Greg realized he had a silver suitcase in his hand.

"It's one of those hard shelled suitcases," Nick said when Greg came up to him, the waves still crashing by his feet.

"I didn't know they floated," Greg said. His eyes were fixated on the suitcase, overly anxious to see what was inside.

Nick shrugged. "I guess they're supposed to."

He dragged the suitcase up onto the dry sand before he knelt down to try and open it. There was a combination lock keep it closed. Greg knelt down next to him and studied the combination, which required three numbers, and was set at all zeroes.

"Maybe the guy is dumb enough to make his combination 1-2-3," Greg offered.

Nick glanced at Greg and couldn't help but smile. "Can't hurt to try," he mused.

So try they did, and to Nick's surprise and Greg's elation, the combination of 1-2-3 worked. The locked snapped loose, and they threw open the suitcase in excitement. Greg's assumption that it had been a man's suitcase was in fact right as well: inside was an abundant amount of clothes and necessities for a man on a beach vacation; not surprising considering the plane they had been on was returning to Las Vegas from Hawaii.

Inside they found three pairs of bathing suits, countless shorts and t-shirts, a few warmer shirts, three beach towels, souvenirs that weren't of any use to them, and a toiletries bag with an electric razor, tooth brush, Q-tips, and other grooming needs. As Greg continued to rummage through the bag, Nick looked around their immediate surroundings with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Greg asked.

"I feel like we're on a reality show where we just think we're stranded on a deserted island, but they're making sure he don't die by giving us water, shelter, and plenty of clothes and stuff."

Greg couldn't help but laugh. "And you think I watch too much television?"

A subsequent search of the rest of the island rewarded the pair with two more suitcases, neither of them hard shelled so the contents were water logged, but it allowed for them to gain access to them by cutting into them with the scissors. They would be able to dry the new additions of shirts and towels out in the sun anyway. The north side of the island proved to be the closest to the crash site because that's where they found the other two suitcases along with debris from the plane. Nothing else was useful that they found, but they reasoned that if this stuff washed up here, they couldn't be that far from the crash site, so they were in search range. Also, they were lucky to now have several changes of clothes that were lighter and better equipped them to handle the tropical heat.

After changing in fresh and dry shorts, the two men stashed away the rest of their new clothes in their cave before returning to the beach. Greg was scanning the beach and water for any more signs of anything else out there when he realized Nick was looking at him.

"What?" Greg asked, surprised at the inquisitive look Nick was giving him.

Nick quickly stopped thinking about how good Greg looked in shorts without a shirt on and answered him with the first thing that came to mind.

"Have you ever been fishing?"

* * *

><p>Sorry it's been kind of slow so far, I promise it'll pick up, as will their developing relationship. Thanks for reading, and a special thanks to those who reviewed!<p> 


	4. Close Encounter

"The only thing we're going to get out of this is heat stroke and a bad sunburn."

Greg had to squint against the glare of the sun off of the water, but he could still see Nick smiling slightly at his comment. They were about fifteen feet apart from each other in the water, sharpened sticks acting as spears in hand. They were waist deep in the water, but every wave that came past them almost went up to their shoulders. They were holding their makeshift fishing tools in both hands of the the water, watching through the clear liquid for any signs of fish. They had been standing in the water for ten minutes, watching, not saying anything, until Greg had sighed heavily.

"Go put your shirt on then," Nick replied. He kept his eyes trained on the water, noting that more and more fish were starting to get closer and closer to him.

"I bet you'll end up stabbing yourself before a fish," Greg said, ignoring that Nick had even spoken. "How did you even talk me into this?" he asked.

Nick shrugged. "I asked if you were hungry. Eating only fruit won't keep us alive for that long. We need more, we need protein. There's an ocean full of fish for us to eat. Stop complaining and try and catch a few, would ya?"

Greg scoffed at Nick, but was ignored. He looked back out at the water and hated to admit it, but he was actually enjoying himself. He was in warm, crystal clear water with the warmth of the sun on his exposed skin, a gentle breeze blowing every so often. It wasn't a common occurrence for Greg to be able to enjoy the sun; most of the time when he was in it, he was at a crime scene and had to focus his attention elsewhere. Now, he could revel in the beautiful weather all around him, and notice how good Nick looked as well. The other man was concentrating on trying to catch them some fish to eat. The muscles in his back and arms were flexed as he held the spear, poised and ready. His tanned skin was wet from the splashing of the waves, and the water droplets glistened in the sun. Greg had to tear his eyes away and back to the water before Nick noticed he had been staring at him and threw the spear at him instead of the fish.

After about ten more minutes of silence, Greg was jolted from his concentration as Nick suddenly plunged his spear into the water before retracting it quickly, revealing the flopping fish on its sharpened end. Nick held the fish up in the air out of the water and stared at it for a few moments before looking over at Greg, who was totally shocked.

"Okay," Greg said, "so we're going to get heat stroke, a bad sunburn, and dinner out of this."

He couldn't suppress his smile as he slowly waded through the water over to Nick, who pulled the still struggling fish from the spear and held it out to Greg. "Go cook it, I'll try and catch some more."

The realization sudden dawned on Greg, and his smile faded. "We have to cook him?" he asked, sounding like a child.

Nick couldn't help but laugh. "Unless you'd prefer sushi."

Greg groaned. "I'd prefer not having to kill a poor innocent fish."

Nick frowned at the younger man. "Since when do you care about eating animals? You're not a vegetarian. Is Sara finally wearing off on you?"

"No," Greg replied, shaking his head. "I've just never caught, killed, and cooked my own food before. It's so, personal."

"It's a fish," Nick corrected. "You can just eat the fruit if you'd rather."

Greg shook his head and took the fish from Nick. "Fine, I'll cook it." He turned and started making his way towards the shore. "Sorry, Nemo," he mumbled under his breath, but Nick heard him.

"Don't name him when you're about to go throw him on the fire," he called over his shoulder, but didn't turn around, so he missed Greg flipping him off.

Greg reluctantly began cooking the fish on the fire, which he was unsure if he was doing correctly or not seeing as he had never really cooked anything before. He was paying more attention to Nick in the water than the fish on the fire, though. He had moved a little closer to the shore, and after only a half hour or so he had caught four more fish, throwing each one up onto the beach for Greg to cook. The sun was starting to lower itself in the sky, little by little, and it wouldn't be too long before it set behind the trees on the west side of the island. Greg had just finished cooking the last fish Nick had caught and was making his way back to the water when he saw it. It didn't register in his brain at first, because it couldn't be possible. Except it was all too possible, and after the initial shock took over, making his heart race and his breath catch in his throat, Greg's mind was able to concentrate on what he had seen, and realized what was going to happen if he didn't do something. Fast.

The fin was cutting through the water quickly, headed straight for Nick. It had come out of nowhere, appearing in Greg's view as it swam past the rocks. Nick didn't see it. He was looking in the other direction, following the fish. He was slowly turning his back to the approaching shark that seemed to be picking up speed as it neared the man in the water. Greg took off in a spring, running as fast as he could towards the water.

"Nick!" he yelled. Nick immediately turned around and looked at him, but he still was unaware of the impending doom. "Get out of the water, there's a shark!"

Greg could see Nick immediately roll his eyes and smile slightly, thinking that Greg was just messing with him He was too far away to see the fear in Greg's eyes or his hands shaking. He was still fifteen feet from the beach, and the shark was only five feet from Nick. The older man didn't even have time to reply to Nick before he felt a heavy bump against his right leg, followed by a sharp scraping. He was hit so hard that he dropped the spear and lost his balance, falling forward in the water, his feet completely off the sandy ocean floor. He turned in the water quickly and saw the shark swim past him slightly before turning around and heading back towards him. Nick was able to maneuver himself out of the path of the animal and pushed it away from him forcefully. He regained his footing on the sand and started moving backwards toward the beach, moving frantically because he could no longer see the shark or where it had went.

Nick was stumbling against the water and kept slipping on the wet sand. He barely noticed when Greg seized his arms from behind and pulled him back hard, practically dragging him up onto the shore. When Nick felt the hot, dry sand under his feet, he turned around quickly to face Greg. They were both breathing hard with their eyes locked on one another.

"Are you okay?" Greg asked breathlessly.

"I think so," Nick said, unable to look away from Greg's eyes.

"Did it bite you?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't know," he replied, and finally tore his eyes from Greg's and looked down at his right side. His knee and upper thigh were abraded and bleeding only slightly, but nothing serious or even close to life threatening. "I think it just bumped into me, and scratched me with its skin or tail or something."

Greg nodded slowly, still gripping Nick's arms tightly. "Okay," he replied when he realized Nick was fine.

"Fuck, that was scary," Nick said with a small laugh when he got his breathing under control. "It must have been attracted because of the blood from the fish," he commented.

Greg finally released Nick's arms, dropping his hands to his side. "Next time, stand on a rock or something. I've seen Jaws, sharks are no joke."

Nick laughed and nodded in agreement. The pair then sat on the beach and happily ate their fish as the sun continued to go down, dropping the temperature ever so slightly as the minutes wore on. They finished eating and continued to just sit there in silence, watching the sun start to fade away and disappear behind the trees.

"You know those dumb games people play sometimes?" Greg asked suddenly. "Like, question games? The ones where they say 'if you were stranded on an island, what three books would you bring with you?' That kind of thing?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah."

"I used to think those were so stupid, until right now. I'd do anything to have a book right now. Any book."

"I didn't know I was that awful to be around," Nick said jokingly.

Greg scoffed. "It has nothing to do with you Stokes, relax," he said. "I bet everyone is really worried about us back home," he said, shifting the subject suddenly. He said it more thoughtfully than sadly, though Nick still could detect the hint of loneliness in the younger man's words.

"I can't imagine," Nick replied. "They probably think we're dead," he said flatly.

Greg wanted to argue, but he couldn't. It had been three days since the crash. Three days is a long time to go without hearing any news of survival and still hold out hope that they would still be alive. Maybe they hadn't given up hope yet, but how long could everyone that knew them convince themselves that they would survive?

"Your girlfriend is probably a wreck," Greg mused.

Nick laughed humorless. "I don't have a girlfriend G."

Greg raised an eyebrow, but Nick was still watching the sunset. "I thought you were dating that nurse, Laura? Lauren?"

"Lauren," Nick replied. "We broke up a while ago."

"Oh," Greg said lamely. "Sorry," he muttered.

Nick shrugged. "Not your fault."

"I take it that it wasn't your fault either," Greg said, noting the tone in Nick's voice. It was like he was trying to pass it off as no big deal, but at the same time Greg got the inclination that it had been for some reason.

"She cheated on me," Nick said simply, his voice lacking any emotion. "A few times, I guess. I don't know, I didn't really ask for many details. She just told me, then broke up with me."

Greg sighed. "That sucks man, I'm sorry I brought it up."

Nick shrugged again. "It wasn't going to last anyway. I don't even really blame her. I only saw her like once a week. She usually works day shifts, and I obviously work nights. She was nice and everything, but I don't know. She didn't understand how I could do this job every day. I know it sounds horrible, but I was only really dating her because..." he trailed off, not wanting to sound like a jackass.

"Because it's better than being alone," Greg finished for him.

Nick looked over at Greg and smiled somewhat sadly. "Yeah, exactly."


	5. Whereabouts Unknown

The beginning of this chapter explains what happened before the plane crash. Italics indicate a flashback. Enjoy!

* * *

><p><em>Nick could hear the arguing coming from DB's office before he had even turned the corner. He recognized the voices right off - DB's, followed by Greg's - both equally angry and upset over whatever it is they were talking about. Nick didn't want to eavesdrop, but the level of their voices really left him no choice.<em>

_"If you weren't planning on going, then why did you say you were excited to go to Hawaii when I asked you two days ago?" DB questioned._

_"Because I am going to Hawaii, for my cousin's wedding, not this stupid conference. I told you two months ago that I was going for the weekend to her wedding. When you asked if I could go to the conference, I told you again that I had the wedding. You chose to ignore it, or forgot, or whatever."_

_DB sighed so heavily Nick could hear him from down the hall as he approached hesitantly._

_"Why can't you go to the conference too? It's on the same island. The last day is Sunday, the day of the wedding, and it'll be over by one in the afternoon. You can make the reception, be there the whole night."_

_"I don't want to go to the conference, first of all, and second I don't want to hang around a stupid conference when I could be spending time with my family. I don't want to miss the actual wedding and just show up for the reception. You're missing the point."_

_"No," DB argued, "you are. I was under the impression that you would be going to this conference. We're regarded as being the best lab in the country Greg, we have to send someone, and as a promising young CSI with room on his resume to fill, I figured you would jump at the chance."_

_"Then send Morgan if it's about wanting to level up," Greg retorted._

_"Morgan is attending the sherrif's fundraiser with Ecklie this weekend. Sara is in Peru with Grissom, and Finn is staying here with me to help run the lab and work cases while everyone else is away. We've had to pull guys from days and swing to help cover shifts this weekend because everyone is apparently so damn busy. We have to send someone to this conference Greg."_

_"I'll do it," Nick said as he finally reached DB's doorway to his office. Both Greg and DB looked up at Nick with surprise at his sudden appearance._

_Greg smiled slightly at his friend's offer to help and turned back to DB. "See? Nick will do it."_

_"Nick just went to a conference in Hawaii last summer," DB recalled. "I remember because he was the only one I hadn't met yet."_

_Nick shrugged his shoulders. "So what? I liked Hawaii, it's not like you're sending me to Alaska. Someone has to go, right? I've worked here a lot longer than Greg, as a CSI anyway, and you have no one else. Don't make him miss his cousin's wedding just to prove a point. I'll do it, it's fine."_

_DB agreed, happy to have someone going, and secretly glad it was Nick because of his experience. It was all handled relatively effortlessly; Nick was going to stay with Greg in his hotel because as it turned out, the conference was in the hotel just down the street, and Greg's family had booked him a suite even though he was attending the wedding by himself. The conference was Friday through Sunday, and Greg was planning on leaving Thursday night anyway to arrive when the rest of his family did. So they flew down together, and would fly back to Vegas together on Monday._

_The flight to Hawaii was, without question, better than the flight back, which landed them in the ocean and ultimately stranded on the island. But they obviously didn't know that was going to be the outcome. The departure flight was late, so they slept most of the way down. When they got to their hotel, they checked in and fell asleep almost instantly. For the next few days, they rarely even saw each other. Nick was running around to meetings and lectures while Greg was helping out with any wedding things he could and spending time was his rather large family. When their busy schedules finally wound down late at night, they would hang out for a few hours and watch a movie or a game, and then fall asleep and do it all over again the next day._

_On Sunday, Nick was returning to the hotel from the final aspects of the conference. The reception for the wedding was taking place in the hall of the hotel, and it just so happened that as he was coming in, Greg was in the lobby talking to his cousins when he spotted Nick and ushered him over. After some urging from Greg and his cousins, Nick decided to stay at the reception, meeting Greg' entire family, including Greg's newly married cousin Michelle and her new husband, Joe._

_Greg was just beyond buzzed, and Nick couldn't help but smile at seeing his friend so happy surrounded by his family. Greg introduced Nick to his youngest cousin, Jenna, who was two years younger than Greg. After Jenna flirted shamelessly with Nick for as long as she could before she was taken away for pictures, Greg sighed heavily and turned to Nick._

_"She's like a sister to me," he told Nick. "We've had a lot of fights. Her parents got divorced, and she acted out for a while, and we went a little while without talking, but she means so much to me. If I got to pick a sibling, I would pick her. She's always been there for me, even though we fight over the stupid mistakes we've both made. She used to sleep with all of my friends just to make me mad and to prove that she could. We've been through a lot," he added quietly._

_As the reception faded to the last few straggler guests, Nick and Greg and everyone else staying at the hotel staggered upstairs to their rooms for the night. Exhausted, Greg fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, only vaguely aware of the fact that Nick didn't seem to be going to sleep any time soon. The next morning, they ate breakfast with Greg's parents and the remaining family members before boarding their flight later that afternoon back to Vegas._

_They had been in the air for almost two hours before the flight crew realized something was wrong. The stewardess that had been flaunting herself in front of Nick - and why had that made Greg so jealous, he couldn't figure out - had been gone for longer than her usual five minutes between checking to see if Nick wanted anything. Nick's eyes had just closed as he rested his head against the window when Greg shook him awake._

_"What?" Nick whined._

_"I think something's wrong," Greg had replied._

_Nick perked up at the sound of the worry in the younger man's voice. He looked around, noticing the tension building among the flight crew. It wasn't long before they had to announce that there was a problem with one of the engines, and that they would be making an emergency water landing, but not to worry because the coast guard was on its way to pick up all the passengers and return them to safety. Being told not to worry of course spread panic like wildfire through the plane. As the descent began, Nick and Greg locked onto each others eyes, too afraid to look away. The plane hit the water roughly, causing Greg to hit his head, hard. Before he really knew what was going on, Nick was pulling him out of his seat, then out of the plane into the lukewarm water. The waves were rough and it was so dark, too dark to see anything other than Nick, who was holding on to him so tightly. The last thing either of them could remember was helping the mother and her kids that had been sitting in front of them into the basket that brought them up the waiting coast guard helicopter as the storm began. Nick had lifted Greg into the nearest life raft and then pulled himself in before collapsing next to the younger man and passing out from exhaustion accrued from fighting the rough sea._

"How many people do you think died?" Greg asked softly. They had been on the island now for eight days, and were just now talking about the plane crash that landed them there.

Nick sighed heavily. "I don't know. Probably a decent amount. The water got real rough so fast. There were a good number of people still in the water with us when they dropped the rafts. I doubt if they all made it."

"You shouldn't have even been there in the first place," Greg commented sadly. "I should have just gone to the fucking conference."

"It's not your fault," Nick argued. "I volunteered. I wanted to go."

"Why?" Greg asked.

Nick effectively fought the urge to tell him it was because he wanted to help him out to get his attention and to spend a weekend in Hawaii with him, even if it wasn't in the exact fashion that he had fantasized about, it was better than nothing. Nick didn't say that, because he didn't understand why he wanted to say that.

"Because you're my friend," he replied, "and I wanted to do you a favor. If I had known how it was going to end up, I-"

"You wouldn't have gone," Greg said, cutting him off.

"I wouldn't have let you go, either," Nick added.

Greg looked over at Nick and was surprised to see such honesty and loyalty in the other man's eyes. He had always wanted to be as close with Nick as they were becoming now; he just wished it hadn't taken them being stranded on an island to get it accomplished. He would never admit it, out loud or really even to himself, but there was no one else in the world that he would rather be stuck with than Nick Stokes.

"You think really loud, you know," Nick said with a small smile.

Greg frowned. "Oh yeah? Are you a mind reader?" he asked.

Nick scoffed. "I wish. That would make our jobs a hell of a lot easier. But I don't think I'd want to know what people really think of me," he mused.

Greg smiled himself and looked from Nick back out at the slowly rising sun. "I don't know," he said, "I think you'd be really surprised."


	6. Shadow of the Day

Neither one of them could sleep. They both knew that when they woke up tomorrow, it would be two weeks since the plane crash. They had originally thought that they would be on the island for three, four days, tops. Now days were becoming weeks, and they were becoming more and more anxious. They had accustomed themselves to surviving rather nicely, given all of the necessities at their disposal, but being stranded there was beginning to get to them. Fruit and fish no longer sufficed to satisfy their hunger; they could already see one another growing thinner seemingly by the day. Now they were laying in the raft, starting up at the empty blackness of the fire above them, trying to steady their nervous and racing hearts.

"I feel like I did when I was buried alive sometimes," Nick said, speaking suddenly. His voice shattered the silence, causing Greg to jump at the noise. Nick felt the other man flinch at his side and had the sudden urge to wrap his arm around him and pull him close, but he didn't.

Greg was more surprised at what Nick had said than that he had said anything. "What do you mean?" he asked, not wanting to miss a chance to have another intimate conversation with him.

"Since we've been here, I get that feeling I did when I was down there, that I'm somewhere no one will ever find me," he said quietly as he sat up, Greg following his suit. The light from the fire was now flickering across their faces, illuminating their expressions. "That feeling that I was all alone and that it was going to stay like that."

"You were never completely alone," Greg replied. "Someone was always in the room, watching you."

Nick frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, watching me?"

"On the webcam," Greg answered. "In Archie's lab."

When Nick's expression changed from confusion to astonishment and shock, Greg realized that Nick hadn't known about the webcam. But how could he not have known? Surely it had come up in the days after he was rescued. It had to have. There was no way he didn't know. All these thoughts raced through Greg's mind at once, but the look on Nick's face told him that he truly hadn't know until just now.

"You guys could...you could see me?" Nick asked, his voice soft and weak.

Greg nodded weakly. "Gordon sent a flash drive with a link to a camera."

Nick swallowed hard. "I didn't know that," he whispered.

"I'm sorry Nick," Greg said quickly. "I didn't know you hadn't known. I figured Grissom had told you, or your parents, or someone. I assumed you knew. I'm really sorry."

Nick shook his head slowly. "It's not your fault. It's just that I can't really remember anything from that night. Catherine and Warrick always tried to get me to talk about it, ya know? But I really couldn't because I can't remember anything. I remember the light and the fan and the ants, but that's about it. They thought I didn't want to talk about it, but the truth is I actually couldn't."

Greg looked down at his hands in his lap and wished he hadn't have opened his big mouth, yet again. He was about to continue apologizing when Nick spoke again. "Did you watch me?" he asked hesitantly.

Greg looked back up at Nick. He couldn't recall ever seeing so much emotion in someone's eyes ever before. "We all kind of took turns," he replied. "We wanted to keep the light on for you and for someone to always stay with you, even though you didn't know we were there. In case something happened."

"That's how Warrick knew I shot out the light," Nick said, suddenly realizing something to himself. "He talked about that, but I never understood how he knew."

"He thought you shot yourself," Greg said softly. He didn't know why he had said that; it came out on its own.

"What else did I do?" Nick asked. "What did you see me do?"

Greg wanted to look away, but couldn't move his eyes from Nick's. "You were trying to break the glass, to open the lid I guess. You were pushing on all of the walls, just trying to get free. After you calmed down, you kind of just laid there. There wasn't much you could do," he said sadly. "I felt so, so useless. Then we thought we found you, and it was just a dog."

Nick noticed as Greg's hands started to shake slightly. "I can't remember anything before seeing Warrick and Grissom. It's just a flash of them yelling at me to put the gun down and stay still, then I woke up in the hospital. The rest I just pieced together from what everyone else said about that night and the nightmares I've had. I guess I can't remember because I don't want to. All I can remember is thinking that I was going to die."

"But you didn't," Greg said, putting a firm hand on Nick's shoulder both to reassure the older man and get his hands to stop shaking so much. "Everyone else talked about how they would have given up if it had been them down there, but you didn't. You got through it."

"And you guys found me," Nick added with a smile.

Greg smiled as well. "Yeah. And we found you."

They both laid back down to try and get some sleep, but it took a while for either one of them to relax enough to fall asleep. They were both extremely conscious of the fact that they were laying closer together than they ever had, but neither one of them thought the other noticed, and it wasn't like they minded, they actually enjoyed it. They finally drifted off to sleep, but it wasn't long before Nick woke up when the dim light started pouring into the cave's entrance. He became aware of the lack of heat to his left, looking over and seeing that Greg was gone. He forced his stiff and tired body to get up, crawling out of the raft and walking out of the cave, where he found Greg sitting on the beach, watching the sunrise. Nick walked up to the shoreline and sat down next to his friend, who had to try very hard not to be visibly excited by Nick's presence. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the sun come up and shed bright reds, yellows, and oranges across the sky that was reflected off of the blue ocean.

"Thanks for telling me that last night," Nick said. "I know you didn't do it on purpose, but I'm glad you did. It makes me feel better about what happened, knowing that you guys were there the whole time."

Greg was relieved that Nick wasn't tormented by the thought of having his friends watching him suffer underground. "I'm glad it helped you," he said simply.

He stood to go up and get some fruit for them to eat, but Nick stood up quickly and gently grabbed his wrist to keep him from walking away. Greg looked down in shock at the action and was taken aback by the electricity that shot through Nick's hand up his arm all the way to his chest, making his heart flutter. He slowly lifted his eyes from Nick's hand up to his dark brown eyes, which were staring right into his.

Their eyes were locked, and they both knew that this was the most intense moment that they had ever been apart of because of the tension between them that they were both now just realizing that the other had noticed as well. Nick's whole arm was tense, and it looked to Greg like he was debating whether or not to turn around and run away. But he didn't, maybe because he knew there was nowhere for him to run to. But Greg didn't have much time to think of the reason why because suddenly, Nick was gently pulling him forward by his wrist. Greg was pulled off balance and had to step forward, which Nick did as well. The older man reached up with his other hand and threaded it through Greg's hair as he pulled their bodies flush together and didn't hesitate, not for a second, as he brought their lips crashing together.

Greg was so surprised at the sudden turn of events that he just stood there, letting Nick's hold in him place. It took a few moments for him to register what was going on, and as soon as he did, he opened his mouth and kissed Nick back as hard as he could. He grabbed the Texan's hip, making them as close as possible. They kissed until they were out of breath, at which point they pulled apart reluctantly so they could look at each other, but still stood close together, holding onto one another.

Nick swallowed the taste of Greg that he figured would never leave his tongue. "Have you ever done that before?" he asked quietly.

"What do you mean? Have I ever made out with a guy, or made out on a beach during a sunrise?"

Nick smiled and ran his hand through Greg's impossibly soft hair. "Either one, I guess," he replied with a small laugh.

"Neither," Greg answered honestly. "And I'm willing to bet you haven't either. The first one, at least."

Nick nodded. "I'm not attracted to guys," he said. Greg's heart dropped to his stomach at the thought that Nick was going to say he had made a mistake. But then Nick kissed him again before pulling away slightly to say against his lips, "I'm only attracted to you."

"But I'm a guy," Greg said dumbly.

"I know that," Nick said as he ground his hips slowly against Greg's calling attention to their growing arousal. "But you're the only guy I've ever thought about like that before."

Greg nodded slightly, understanding what Nick meant because he felt the same way about the older man. "Is this just because we're just on a stranded island together?" he asked, afraid of what the answer was going to be.

Nick shook his head immediately. "No," he answered. "It's because you've always had something about you that I wanted more of."

Greg pulled Nick in for another kiss as soon as the last syllable left his lips. The sensation was so new and exciting for the both of them. They were both used to being the aggressive ones when it came to physical contact, but they found a new sanctification from battling for control with the other. Nick pushed himself against Greg's body, and he pushed back just as hard. The heat that was emanating from their hard bodies pressed against each other was unlike anything they had ever experienced before, and neither one of them could get enough.

When they had to pull apart to breathe again, Greg took the opportunity to speak this time. "Where do we go from here? I mean, I don't exactly know how to do this, but I know I really want to," he said, his mouth next to Nick's ear and his hot breath spilling over his neck.

Nick felt goosebumps cover his skin at the feeling of Greg's breath on his flesh. "I don't know either," he answered honestly. "I don't know how to go about this, and I don't want to try and do something and end up hurting you or anything."

Greg nodded slightly and moved his head so his lips were hovering over Nick's. "Well, why don't we go back to the raft and get comfortable?" He kissed Nick again, each encounter of their lips, tongues and teeth getting more and more passionate. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out."


	7. Shimmer

Warning for male on male adult content. If it's not your thing, don't read any further.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure?"<p>

The lighting in the cave was still dim given the early hour, but Greg could clearly see the concern on Nick's face. His eyes were darkened with lust and an underlying hint of something else, but Greg didn't want to think about that right now. There would be plenty of time for that discussion after they both got what they needed. And right now, Greg needed to feel Nick, and there were really only two ways to do that. Since neither one of them had ever had a sexual experience with another man before, they had stumbled back to the raft in a lip lock, their hands roaming over still clothes bodies hesitantly. When they finally became accustomed to the new feeling, they shed their shirts and felt the explosion of heat from their skin meeting. Greg then needed more, and started pulling at Nick's jeans, tugging on them until he effectively pulled Nick completely on top of him. Greg hooked his legs around Nick's calves, keeping him in place and expressing to him without words how he wished to proceed.

Greg nodded against Nick's forehead. "I am, are you? Do you not want to do this?"

"No, I do," Nick replied, having a hard time controlling himself in such a strong state of lust. "But I know you haven't done this before, and neither have I, and I don't want to hurt you." Nick created enough space between their eyes so that they could see each others directly. "I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you."

Greg sighed slightly. "It's probably going to hurt Nick," he said calmly. "But I trust you," he said softly before kissing Nick again. He arched his hips up against Nick's, creating even more contact and friction between the two. "And I have a feeling it's going to be worth it," Greg said against Nick's lips, sending a shudder throughout the older man's body.

Greg didn't allow Nick to respond. He captured his mouth in another breathtaking kiss as he unbuttoned and unzipped Nick's jeans, which were becoming tighter by the second. Feeling the confidence radiating off of Greg and onto himself, Nick did the same to Greg's jeans, pulling them down and off his body and discarding them somewhere behind them. The thin cotton of their boxers felt much better as they moved against one another, but it wasn't long before they wanted complete skin on skin, and eventually got just what they wanted. Greg had become the braver of the two very quickly, and once he got Nick out of his boxers, he reached down in between the two of them, still kissing Nick, and wrapped his hand around both of them at the same time, bringing them completely together. Nick sighed and moaned at the same time, but didn't break away from Greg's lips.

Nick's hand eventually followed suit, moving past where Greg was holding him and slowly pushing inside of the younger man to prepare him for what was to come. Greg just kept kissing Nick and moving up against him to create as much contact as possible for as long as possible. When there was nothing left to do, Nick put his hands on either side of Greg's hips to steady himself and get into position. He broke the kiss, moving his lips just far enough away from Greg's so that he could speak.

"Don't be afraid to stop me if it hurts too much," he said, his voice full of want and need, but still sincere nonetheless. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Greg swallowed hard and put his hands on Nick's biceps, squeezing firmly and reassuringly. "I trust you. I want this," he said, looking into Nick's dark eyes. "I want you."

Nick kissed him softly. "You've got me," he replied in a low whisper.

As Nick finally moved forward and into Greg, the lighter haired man had trouble figuring out where the pain ended and the pleasure began. Nick's head moved past his as he buried his face in the crook of Greg's neck, and the ex-lab rat couldn't help but bite into Nick's shoulder. He felt Nick hesitate and tense, like he was going to stop, but Greg moved back against him, bringing him deeper. Greg slid his hands down Nick's chest, across his ribs and to his back, pulling him ever closer, encouraging him to continue moving. Nick obliged, and it didn't take much for the two of them to get completely lost in the new, exhilarating feeling.

As suddenly as this entire thing seemed to have started, it was over. They were both shaking slightly as they came down from their climax, Greg a little more so than Nick. Greg's eyes were shut tight and he was breathing heavily, trying to get it under control. Nick noted the coolness of the cave that mixed with their damp skin added a chill to contrast to the heat they had just felt for the last half hour or so. He gathered their clothes from the pile that had formed behind them and started himself and Greg, alternating by whatever article of clothing he picked up. By the time he was done, he was wearing Greg's boxers, his own jeans, and Greg's shirt, with Greg obviously sporting the opposites. It wasn't until he realized that he was now fully clothed and that Nick was no longer on top of him that Greg opened his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked. He laid back down next to Greg, taking the other man's hand into his own, noting that it was still shaking slightly.

Greg nodded. "Yeah," he replied, his voice filled with emotion. "That was unbelievable. I never thought that that would happen," he added.

Nick smiled. "Neither did I," he agreed.

Greg turned his head and looked up at the ceiling of the cave above him. It was starting to get lighter outside, and the early morning light was rushing into the cave quickly, illuminating everything inside it. He looked away so that Nick wouldn't be able to read his facial expressions quite so well. He was nervous about what had to come next. They had to talk about what just happened. It wasn't like they were back in Vegas where one of them could just up and leave to go back to their apartment and then avoid each other at work until someone finally had the guts to bring it up. They were stuck on an island together, they couldn't just act like it didn't happen.

"Sorry about your shoulder," Greg mumbled in an attempt to keep the conversation going without directly bringing up what they both knew needed to be brought up.

"It's fine," Nick said with a small laugh. "How bad did I hurt you?"

Greg shook his head. "You didn't hurt me at all," he responded.

Nick frowned and wished that Greg would look at him. "Looks like I did," he said, hinting at Greg's body that was just starting to stop shaking.

"It didn't hurt in that sense," Greg said. "I'm fairly certain it would have hurt a hell of a lot more if it hadn't happened at all," he explained, his voice soft and quiet.

"I'm glad it did," Nick said. He shifted slightly so he was laying on his left side, completely facing Greg, who was still looking up at nothing in particular.

"Me too," Greg agreed. Then he finally looked back at Nick. "Why did it happen?"

Nick wished the answer came easy to him. "I don't really know," he replied honestly. "After last night, and everything else that's happened in the last few weeks, I feel closer to you than I've ever felt to anyone else before. It's not just because we were in a plane crash and got stranded on this island and were practically forced to talk to each other about actual stuff, but at the same time that definitely had something to do with it."

"What exactly is _it_?" Greg asked hesitantly, fearing what the answer was going to be. "What is this?" he asked, holding his hand up slightly that was still holding Nick's.

He expected Nick to shrug his shoulders casually and say that it was just two friends blowing off steam, using each other for sex in a stressful situation. He expected him to say it was a one time thing that probably shouldn't happen again, but if they were stuck there for long enough, then who knows. He expected Nick to use his charm and southern accent to talk his way out of what just happened. But Greg was wrong.

"This is," Nick began, looking down at his hand in Greg's, "everything I've ever wanted."

Nick's eyes were looking elsewhere, but Greg could still see the honesty in them. The first thing that Greg learned about Nick, way back when he was just the new DNA tech from California that wore crazy shirts and listened to his music far too loud, was that Nick gave everything away in his eyes. If you paid enough attention in certain situations, you learned to read his eyes. You could use his dark brown pools to tell when his smile was real and when he wasn't okay, even though he said he was and his voice matched what it was saying. Greg was good at reading people, and he liked to think he was very good at reading Nick because he had paid such close attention to him over the years. He thought that it had just been his imagination, but Greg seemed to notice that Nick didn't put on a show in front of him like he used to; he would be his real self, as Greg would, which is probably why their relationship developed as it had.

"I told you everything about Lauren and what I could remember about being kidnapped because I've always felt comfortable around you," Nick continued. "You make it easy to trust you. Catherine and Warrick and everyone else always expects me to be a certain way, to do and say and feel certain things and when I don't, they don't know what to do. You fight with me when you think I'm wrong, but you never try to get me to do something in particular for a certain reason. I don't know, you just always let me be me and have never expected anything of me. You just take me as I am."

Greg felt a smile tugging at his mouth. "Well, I like who you are," he replied. "I always have. You're not perfect, and I used to think you tried to be or that you thought you were, but I know now that that was all about appearances. You act like a tough guy for everyone else sake, never your own. You never really do anything for yourself, even when you should. I've always wanted to know you better, spend more time with you, but thought it was weird to want that. I didn't want to admit that I have feelings for you because I didn't think it could go anywhere."

Nick sighed slightly. "I've been scared of how I feel because I knew that it was something I never felt before, and that meant that if you didn't feel the same way that it would hurt more than anything else had before. So I played it safe. But I don't want to play it safe anymore. I want to be with you, but at the same time, I don't want you to be with me."

Greg frowned in confusion. "What does that mean?"

"I want to be with you because you have everything I've ever wanted in somebody. You're smart, funny, outgoing, a good person, determined, a hard worker. But because I care about you so much, I don't want you to be with me because I know how fucked up I am. I want you to be with someone better than me because I want you to be happy, and you can't be happy with me."

Greg would have thought that Nick was just trying to take the easy way out and deflect how he really felt by saying he wasn't good enough, but Greg could tell that that's what he really thought. And that almost broke his heart.

"I could say the same thing about myself," Greg replied. "I could say that I'm too messed up for a relationship and that you'd be better off with someone else. But maybe that's what we need, each other, because no one else would be able to understand the things we have to go through."

Nick opened his mouth to respond, but Greg continued. "If you don't want a relationship or whatever, you can just say it. But I can tell you really believe that you're not good enough for me, which is ridiculous because you're the one whose settling for me. I want to be with you, and if you want to be with me, I want to give it a try. Maybe it will blow up in our faces, or maybe it won't. I want to find out which one is going to happen."

"I want to," Nick responded as soon as Greg had finished talking. "I didn't mean to imply that I didn't, I just wanted to make sure it was what you really wanted. I know most people think of me as a womanizer, especially with what happened with Kristy, and that not many people would trust me in a relationship. I don't think that I can make you as happy as you deserve, but I can promise you that I'm going to try like hell to give you everything you could ever want."


	8. Come Clean

The past few days had been rather stormy, with only brief spurts of sunshine being cast over the island before another cluster of clouds swooped in and covered the island in darkness, wind and rain. Short of getting water from the waterfall and extra fruit to eat, Nick and Greg were content to stay in their new home, the cave, which had actually become quite cozy now that they were much more physically familiar with one another. They kept the fire small so as not to run out of dry wood too fast. With not much else to do, they had mostly been laying around the last however many days, talking when they felt like it and cuddling in comfortable silence when they didn't. Most of their conversations lead to sex, because as Greg often joked, what else were they going to do? It wasn't like they could go out to a movie or to dinner or anything. Their physical relationship progressed rapidly, as did their emotional one because of their situation. They were with each other twenty-four hours a day, never out of each others sight per Greg's rule, and were so comfortable with each other physically and emotionally that anything was up for discussion.

Neither one of them was quite sure what day it was, or what time it was for that matter. The lack of sun cast dispersions as to the exact hour of the day, and Nick's watch had long since been discarded as the number of their physical encounters increased, seemingly by the hour. They both silently feared that they were going to burn out the flame of their new experience too quickly, but that thought soon vanished as they both realized that there was just no way they could ever get enough of one another, but they were certainly going to put that to the test.

Greg watched as Nick's eyes fluttered closed, never quite realizing before just then exactly how attractive the Texan was. Attractive wasn't even the right word, it was an understatement. The laugh lines around his mouth and eyes drew attention to his two best attributes that Greg always found himself staring at. Nick was beautiful, which Greg had never thought to use to describe a man before, but knowing Nick the way he did and now seeing him in his purest and most vulnerable form only confirmed his belief that yes, this was the most beautiful person inside and out that Greg had ever come across. He lay there in the raft watching Nick drift to sleep, the older man's head rested on his bare stomach, the slow rise and fall as he breathed rocking him to sleep. Greg's left hand was raked through Nick's dark hair while the other was tangled up in Nick's strong yet gentle hand.

Greg thought that Nick had fallen asleep, which was the reason why he chose to say what he did when he said it. "I lied to you," he said so softly that he doubted Nick would have heard him if he had been awake. Which, to Greg's surprise, he was.

He inhaled deeply and released the breath slowly, but his eyes remained closed. "About what?" he mumbled, apparently not too worried about what Greg was going to confess to.

"About never having been with another guy before," Greg whispered before he lost the nerve to tell Nick the truth.

Greg felt Nick's hand shift in his and averted his eyes to the ceiling of the cave when he saw Nick's eyes open and look up, searching for his but unable to meet them. He felt the sudden loss of heat from his stomach as Nick slowly sat up and turned so he was looking down at Greg. The younger man took solace in the fact that Nick was still holding his hand.

"Why?" Nick asked simply.

Greg swallowed hard. "I don't know. I could tell by the way you sounded when you asked me that you had never before, which is what I had figured from the beginning anyway, and I guess I just wanted to pretend I hadn't because nobody that I had been with had ever meant anything to me before. But I knew you did, so I told you I had never done this before so that it would, I don't know, be different somehow."

"I don't understand," Nick said, shaking his head slowly. "Did you think I would care that you had been with other guys before? I know you've been with plenty of women, and you know I have too, so why would I care about other guys? Did you think I would be mad?"

Greg nodded weakly. "I thought you would think I was dirty or something. That I was ruined."

"I would never think that," Nick replied. He squeezed Greg's hand in an attempt to get him to look at him, but his efforts were futile. "Nothing that you've done in the past matters to me. It would be insane if I were to ever hold anything again you given all of the shit I've done, a lot of which you know about. I wouldn't have thought any less of you, I don't think anything different now that I know."

"I just feel like I cheated you out of your virginity or something," Greg said as he sat up, but still didn't make eye contact with Nick. "I know you're not a virgin, but in our sense you are. Were. You let me do things that no one else ever did. You've been with me in more ways than you've ever been with anyone else. I've had you, and you've had me. But you gave me something I couldn't give you because I was your first. And I lied because I wish that you were my first too, I wish that you had been my only one because you're the only one that I've ever really wanted this bad."

Nick opened his mouth to argue, but Greg knew what he was going to say and beat him to refuting his argument before he could even state it. He finally looked at Nick in the eyes as he said, "It hurt when you let me fuck you, didn't it?"

Greg's choice of words made what he said sound harsher than he intended. He hadn't intended to sound harsh at all, and he could see the tone add confusion to the wide range of emotion's on Nick's face. He thought that Greg was somehow mad at him, although of course he wasn't. He was upset at himself and thought he would feel better if Nick was upset with him as well. Greg could think of no other way to express it, so it had come out bluntly and as straight forward as possible.

"Didn't it hurt?" Greg asked again when Nick didn't reply.

"Yes," Nick responded, nodding once. "But you said that I hurt you when-"

"It did," Greg said, "because it had been a while since I had been with a guy, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as I hurt you. I know exactly how much the first time hurt, and you let me do that to you, and then despite that pain you let me do it again and again because you thought that you I was feeling the same thing. But I wasn't. I lied to you. And I'm sorry."

"That's not why I let you do it," Nick answered calmly. "I let you do it because I knew you wanted to, and I trust you, and I wanted it too. I would let you do whatever you want to me, with me, whatever. I want to be with you, no matter what that entails. I'm not mad at you. I don't care who else you've been with, I just want to make you happy."

Greg felt tears slip out of his eyes and run down his cheeks. "I feel like I took advantage of you," he admitted. "I never meant to do that. I didn't mean to guilt you into doing something you didn't want to do or only did because I let you do-"

Nick silenced Greg by kissing him soundly. "You didn't take advantage of me," Nick said against Greg's lips. "I wanted everything we did, I still do. This doesn't change anything Greg. You don't have to lie to me, about anything. I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to."

Greg couldn't help but laugh. "It wasn't your fault. I know you're not shallow or anything like that, I just look at you and see this perfect person and couldn't imagine why you would ever want to be with me, so I lied to make myself look better."

"You know as well as anyone that I'm far from perfect," Nick said. "Especially now that we've had sex."

Greg raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Nick suddenly wished that he had been asleep when Greg started this whole conversation because he was afraid of uncovering notions of what he was about to bring up. "Well, I mean, I've never done most of this physical stuff before, and now knowing that you've been with guys who have I feel bad I guess."

"Bad? What do you mean?"

"Because I'm not good at it," Nick replied. Now it was he who was breaking eye contact. "So it's like you're hooking up with a virgin or something, like you said."

"I didn't meant it like that," Greg said quickly because that was definitely not what he had intended.

"It's true though. I don't blame you that you don't like it."

"That's not what I said," Greg replied. "That's not what I meant at all. I didn't tell you everything because I don't think you're good at the sexual part because believe me Nick, you are. I'm not like women, I can't fake an orgasm, nor would I want to. The fact that you want to do all of this stuff with me makes it that much hotter. It's more than just sex with you because I actually have feelings for you, there's so much more to it than just sex, be it great sex. I know I lied about some other stuff, but I would never lie to you about this?"

"Really?" Nick asked, blushing slightly at Greg's words of praise.

Greg smiled widely, revealing in how adorable Nick was when he was mildly embarrassed with that small smile of his. "Really," he replied before kissing Nick. "And to prove it to you," he continued, maneuvering their bodies skillfully so now Nick was on top of him, "you can do whatever you'd like. I'll make sure you understand just how much I enjoy it."

Greg smiled even wider when Nick smiled; one of his real, genuine smiles, the one that utilizes all of his smile lines and reaches up into his eyes to emphasize its sincerity.


	9. Blurry

It had been over two months since Nick had woken Greg up that morning after the crash. A month and a half of which the two of them had been, well, Greg wasn't quite sure what word to use to describe their current situation. They were stranded on a deserted island together, and that predicament had somehow landed them in a physical relationship that Greg had always wanted, but never thought would happen. As their physical relationship developed, their emotional bond was strengthened to a point that neither one of them thought was possible not just with each other, but with anyone else in general. They didn't have to talk much when they were awake; there were no awkward silences, no trying to impress one another. They already knew each other so well, and being stuck together all day every day was making that fact quickly known to both of them. Neither Nick nor Greg had realized just how well they had known the other man until they started seeing how effortlessly they were able to interact on a day to day basis.

Greg awoke with a jolt, half from the nightmare he had been having and half because of suddenly realizing just how cold he was. He opened his eyes, immediately seeing that Nick wasn't laying next to him. Greg felt his heart sink because he wanted nothing more than to cuddle up against the older man and fall back asleep safely at his side, but apparently that wasn't an option. He sighed as he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before standing up and leaving the raft that had become their bed and the cave that had become their home.

Not surprisingly, Greg found Nick on the beach. As he approached, Greg noted the sun sparkling off of the water droplets covering Nick's chest. He was laying down in the sand, but Greg knew he wasn't asleep because of his breathing and the fact that he was dragging his fingers through the soft sand. Greg silently came to a stop a few feet behind Nick, taking in the sight before him. The older man's hair was wet, as was the rest of his body, with patches of sand clinging to his wet skin. Greg couldn't help but realize how thin Nick was now; they both were. A diet of fruit and fish for the last two months was definitely showing its affects on their bodies, especially Nick's which had always been so muscular and toned. Greg was about to sit down in the sand next to Nick to make his presence known, but apparently Nick had already known that Greg was there.

"You don't want to get rescued, do you," Nick stated rather than asked.

Greg wished that he had spoken first. He should have scolded Nick for breaking their rule of never leaving one another sight, never mind going swimming while he had still been asleep. He should have asked him how he slept, if anything was the matter because he had woken up before Greg, which never happened. He should have taken advantage of Nick's eyes being closed and being in such a vulnerable position by straddling his waist and kissing him. But he hadn't, which forced him to have to have this conversation.

"Why do you think that?" Greg asked.

Nick shrugged. He buried his hands in the sand before slowly raising them. Greg watched as the sand fell around his fingers back onto the beach. "Because I know you," he replied.

"What does that mean?" Greg inquired. "You can tell these kinds of things just by looking at me? I'm an open book to you?"

"Yeah," Nick said with a nod. "You're happier here than you have ever been in Vegas. Even before you went out into the field, even before the explosion. You're more relaxed, you're always smiling. Not a care in the world. I liked to think that it had something to do with me, but I know it doesn't. You don't want to get rescued."

Greg sat in the sand, taking Nick's left hand in his, preventing him from playing in the sand any longer. "Yes I do, because you want to."

"Why don't you want to?" Nick asked as if Greg hadn't just spoken to the contrary.

"I just said that I do," Greg replied. "Why would I want to stay here? It was cool for a few days, nice little pretend vacation. Why wouldn't I want to get rescued?"

"I don't know," Nick said, finally opening his eyes and looking up at Greg. "That's why I asked you."

Greg let go of Nick's hand and crossed his arms against his chest. "If you know me so well, why don't you tell me? I'm an open book, right? Can't you figure it out?"

"So I'm right," Nick said with a small smile. Greg rolled his eyes. "You're scared," Nick continued, answering his own question because he knew Greg wouldn't. "This life is easier than Vegas in every way. No murders to solve, no real problems. We're smart enough to survive here for an extended period of time. It's not ideal, but the worst day here is better than the best day in Vegas."

Greg scoffed. "You sound like the one who wants to stay here."

"You haven't told me I'm wrong, which means I'm right," the Texan commented. "You'd rather be here than Vegas because emotionally, and physically, it's safer."

"You're wrong," Greg said as he stood slowly. "That's not why."

He started to walk towards the forest to go and get a drink of water, but Nick quickly stood and grabbed his arm, holding him in place. The sand on Nick's hand was rough against Greg's skin, but it was a feeling he had become accustomed to. Being from California, he had always loved the feel of sand and the smell of the sea. But right now, he was trying to get away from it because he was trying to avoid Nick and his questions.

"Then why?" Nick asked. "If you can't be honest with me, then this is never going to work."

"What is this, Nick?" Greg asked, his voice a little louder than he had intended. "Whatever this is, it's why I don't want to leave. Because if we ever get out of here, back to Vegas, whatever this is won't exist anymore. Girlfriend or no girlfriend, you won't want to have anything to do with me once we get back home. I'm surprised you're not sick of me already. I don't want to leave the island because I don't want to leave this. I don't want to leave you."

Nick shook his head slowly. "You wouldn't be leaving me at all. This isn't just sex to pass the time Greg. I care about you. A lot. More than I care about myself. I'm not going to ditch you if we make it back to Vegas. It's not like this is a summer fling that ends when we both go back to college or something."

"Which I'm sure you have plenty of experience with," Greg spat. He was scared that whatever they were doing didn't mean the same thing to Nick as it did to him, so he was acting combative to try and protect himself. He was attacking Nick in an attempt for the other man to be able to prove him wrong.

"I'm not going to ditch you," Nick repeated, ignoring Greg's hurtful comment. "I want to be with you. Here, in Vegas, California, wherever. Wherever you are, that's where I want to be. With you. I told you that before, and I'll keep telling you that. I don't know exactly what's going to happen if and when we ever get back to Vegas. It definitely won't be as easy being together there as it is here because there will be so much other shit for us to have to deal with. But if we go back to all of that, I want you to be there with me to go through whatever it is together. I won't tell you it's going to be perfect and easy because I don't know that it will. It probably won't be. But I can tell you that we'll be together as far as I'm concerned. If this ends in any capacity, it's because you want it to. I never will."

Greg threw his hands in the air. "So this entire thing is all on me?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Nick said. He swallowed hard and looked at Greg with something resembling caution reflecting in his brown eyes. "Do you even want to be with me?" he asked, his voice breaking slightly towards the end of his question.

Greg felt his frustration and relative anger at the situation completely melt away and become replaced with guilt and sadness. "Of course I do," he replied, cursing himself for ever having made Nick think anything differently. "I'd rather be stuck here on an island with you than have to go back to Vegas. Doesn't that hint a little at the fact that I want to be with you? Only with you?"

"You would still be with me in Vegas," Nick replied. "But you don't want to be. Why?"

Greg sighed heavily. "Don't get mad, okay?"

"Why would I get mad?"

"Because I like you better here than I do in Vegas," Greg said before he could convince himself not to say anything at all. He continued before Nick could say anything in response. "I don't hate you in Vegas or anything, don't get me wrong. I've always liked you, and it started in Vegas. But here, you're different. You said I'm different, and you are too. Our job clearly has an immense affect on you, and I never really noticed just how much it did until we got stuck here and that affect wore off. You're yourself here. You're relaxed, funnier, nicer, calmer, quieter even. I don't know how to explain it, I just know that if we ever got back to Vegas, everything would change. Our relationship started here, this is all we know together. What if it doesn't work anywhere else?"

"What if it does?" Nick retorted. "I agree, we're both different here because we don't have anything to stress us out or anything trying to kill us every day. Neither one of us will be as relaxed or whatever back in Vegas, but just because a few things are going to change doesn't mean everything will. The underlying factors will still be there. A case might get to me back at work, but it could never overshadow how I feel about you. I can't care about anything else as much as I care about you, no matter where I am. Nothing is going to change that."

Greg was unable to come up with an appropriate verbal response. There was no possible way for him to formulate everything that was going through his mind into words, let alone complete sentences that would be strung together to make any sort of sense. So he did the next best thing. He closed the gap between him and Nick, grabbing the older man by the back of his neck and kissing his passionately. Greg continued to move forward as he kissed Nick, resulting in his momentum taking the other man by surprise and causing him to stumble backwards. Greg successfully pressed his entire body flush against Nick's and surged forward until Nick was falling backwards. He grabbed Greg's hips and pulled him down with him. The ex-lab rat fell on top of him as Nick hit the sand. His surprise wore off and he kissed Greg back as hard as he could.

Greg pulled back slightly to catch his breath, and when he went to kiss Nick again, the other man moved his hands from Greg's hips to his chest, keeping him from moving any closer. Greg pulled back more so he could look Nick in the eyes, and what he saw there immediately concerned him.

"What's wrong?" Greg asked breathlessly.

Tears began to form in Nick's eyes as he looked up at Greg. "You're going to hate me," he whispered.

Greg shook his head slowly. "For what?"

"What I did," Nick replied. He swallowed hard. "For what I'm about to tell you."

Greg frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about? Where is this coming from?"

"I have to tell you," Nick said. His accent was even thicker than it usually was. He moved his hands back to Greg's hips as if to keep in place and prevent him from being able to run away. "I just don't want to lose you."

Greg felt his heart rate increase ten fold and his hands began to shake. "Tell me what Nick?"

Nick closed his eyes, pushing out a few tears that ran down his tanned cheeks. He opened them slowly after a few moments and looked up at Greg. His head started spinning and he felt extremely lightheaded and more nervous than he had ever been in his entire life. Looking Greg in the eyes was tearing his heart in two, but he couldn't bring himself to look away either. Nick tried to take a deep breath, but it didn't make it past the lump in his through to his lungs.

As the tears continued to fall from his eyes, Nick said "I slept with Jenna."


	10. Lock Jaw

The look of pure despair that flashed across Greg's face and radiated in his brown eyes tore at Nick's heart and forced him to close his eyes to try to rid himself of the awful feeling he was experiencing from head to toe. It was his own fault, which he of course knew, but that didn't stop him for trying to get rid of it. He braced himself for the onslaught that was sure to come and was all the more deserved. He was waiting for Greg to yell, scream, punch him, bury him in the sand or drag him by the hair and drown him in the ocean. He was waiting for the violence to come, but it never did. Nick stayed perfectly still and was more than aware of the fact that Greg was still on top of him. Other than the weight of the younger man, there was nothing to tell Nick that he was still there. He was silent and unmoving for what seemed like hours. Nick kept his eyes closed for fear that opening them would trigger what could be the end of his life.

If his eyes had been open, Nick would have seen Greg hang his head as tears silently fell from his broken eyes. "Of course you did," he muttered, more to himself than to Nick. And with that, he pushed himself off of Nick by placing his hands in the sand.

Nick's eyes snapped open at the very unexpected response to his admission. He looked up, but saw only the blue sky above him. No Greg. He sat up and watched as the younger man walked away from him, not pausing or turning around at all, and finally he reached the ocean. He pressed forward, wading into the warm water until the waves washed over his head, removing him from Nick's sight. The Texan sprang to his feet with the idea that he was going to have to save Greg, but then he saw the California native rise to the surface, extend his arms and legs, and float effortlessly on his back in the clear ocean under the bright sun. Nick stood there on the spot, watching Greg, ignoring the sand and salt water falling from his back and sifting through his hair.

He stood there with his eyes fixated on Greg for close to an hour before he could no longer take it. Nick all but sprinted into the water, but didn't have to go in too far. The strong waves had pulled Greg closer and closer to the shore to the point where he was floating in waist-high water. When Nick reached him, Greg's eyes were closed, and if Nick hadn't know better he would think he was asleep.

"What does that mean?" Nick asked as if their conversation hadn't been interrupted by Greg's embarking into the ocean.

Again to Nick's surprise, Greg opened his eyes and moved himself upright so he was standing on the ocean floor, facing Nick. He wiped the water from his face and looked at the other man blankly. "It means I'm not surprised. Of course you slept with Jenna, why wouldn't you have?"

Nick shook his head slowly. "You knew that I did?"

"No, of course not. I wouldn't have fucked you if I knew that you had."

Greg's words were harsher than his tone. He was speaking calmly and evenly, which only added to Nick's apprehension to the situation. Greg wasn't reacting the way that any other person would, which confused Nick and worried him at the same time.

"Then why weren't you surprised?" Nick asked even though he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

Greg hoped Nick couldn't decipher his tears from the salt water running down his face. "Jenna's gorgeous. She always gets whatever guy she wants. I knew as soon as she saw you that she would try to hook up with you, but for some odd reason I didn't think you would. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, even though I shouldn't have. Everything I know about the two of you told me that it would happen, but I ignored it, because I wouldn't let myself believe it would happen. But of course it did. It makes perfect sense."

"I didn't do it to hurt you," Nick said, trying his best to fix the situation. "I honestly didn't even think about it until she knocked on our door that night. I was about to go to sleep, I swear, and then she knocked and said she lost her purse so I was looking for it with her and-"

"And then she remembered that it might be in her room, so she took you there to check, and sure enough it was. Then she offered you a drink, you said yes, then two then three then four, then you slept with her." Nick stared at Greg, dumbfounded. "Yeah, she's pulled it on my friends before. All the time, actually. Does it make you feel cheap? Used?" He laughed humorlessly. "Now you know how I feel."

Greg moved to wade past Nick, but the other man remained in his way. "I didn't use you Greg," he protested. "I didn't do any of this to hurt you," he repeated.

"No, you just did it to get laid. That's all you've ever cared about, and I knew that. But I didn't want it to be true, so I pretended it wasn't. Maybe now I'll learn my lesson and know enough to stay away from you."

"Do you believe everything I've said to you, here and in Vegas and everywhere else we've ever been? Do you believe me? Because I've never lied to you, not once. I care about you. I want to be with you. I love you. Do you believe me?"

"Yes," Greg replied without hesitation. "And that's what makes this hurt so much. That you could sleep with my cousin, whom you know all the shit I've been through with and because of, even though you love me. You love me, but apparently that isn't enough. I'm not enough, and I knew that, I just didn't think you'd prove it to me so blatantly."

Nick shook his head. "You're wrong. You are enough. I didn't realize I loved you until we were here, and I won't apologize for that. I'm sorry I slept with Jenna, I wish I hadn't. I made a mistake, and I'll regret it for the rest of my life because you put your faith in me and I let you down. But you can't give up on me, not yet. You can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I-I, I just need you," Nick stammered.

Greg sighed. "Well, you should have thought of that before you slept with my cousin."

Nick held up his hands in protest. "We weren't together when I slept with her. If I had known-"

"Know what?" Greg interjected. "If you had known we would end up stranded on this island and hooking up, you wouldn't have slept with her? That's bullshit Nick. You wanted both, and you got both. Forget about our relationship or whatever you want to call this fucked up situation; what about our friendship? Did you really think it wouldn't be affected by the fact that you slept with my cousin after I told you everything about my relationship with her? I told you all of that because you're my friend and I trusted you, not because I wanted you to be added to the list of my friends that she's fucked just to piss me off."

"I was never going to tell you," Nick admitted. "If we had landed back in Vegas safely, I never would have told you what happened. I would have forgotten all about it and just let it go. But that didn't happen. We ended up here, and we ended up together, and I knew I had to do the right thing and tell you. I didn't want to keep it from you because I want this to work. I want this to be real and open and honest, so I told you."

Greg shook his head slowly. "You shouldn't have."

"Why not?" Nick wanted to know.

"Because if he had gotten of this island, and made it back to Vegas safely, and somehow regained control over our old lives and everything returned to normal and we were miraculously still together, I would have never wanted to know about your past sexual exploits. I know enough of them just from working with you and don't care to learn any more. I would have never asked and you would have never told me, but for some reason you were too stupid and decided to tell me about Jenna. I would have never known, and I would have been happy."

"You're telling me that you wanted me to lie to you?"

Greg nodded. "Not knowing all the details makes it easier for me not to think about your past, which makes it easier to love you."

"So the more I lie to you the more you're going to love me?"

"I didn't say it makes me love you more, I said it makes it easier to love you. There's a difference. Part of me never wanted to get off of this island because I didn't want to go back to civilization where I would be faced with endless competition for you. I wouldn't be able to handle it, and I know that sooner or later I would lose out to some hot young blonde chick."

"Greg, I told you already that-"

"How many people have you slept with Nick?" Greg asked, cutting the older man off. When he failed to reply, Greg prodded again. "Come on. Pretend for a minute that we're just friends. That we didn't have sex with each other. Exclude me from your list, which I'm sure you'll be more than happy to do. How many?"

Nick suddenly decided that he no longer wanted to have this conversation, much less have it in the ocean, so he turned and walked away from Greg. Surprisingly, the younger man followed him and caught up to him halfway up the beach. He grabbed his arm and spun him around.

"I don't know," Nick replied honestly. "I don't keep track. I don't do the whole notch in my belt or little black book thing. I don't know for sure."

"Ballpark it," Greg said. He clearly wasn't going to let this go.

But Nick remained just as stubborn. "I don't know."

"I've had sex with eight people," Greg retorted. "Ellen, obviously, that was your idea. Two girls from college. A guy in college, two I met after I moved to Vegas, a guy from college I hooked up with whenever I went back to California for a while, and you. See, I include you in my list because even though my cousin is on your list, it still meant something to me. I wish it didn't, but it did. You meant the most to me out of everyone. And now you're the only one on that list that I regret."

Nick felt like Greg had just torn his heart out with his bare hands. "I never meant to hurt you," he said for the third time, his voice weaker than it had ever been.

"I'm willing to bet you've slept with over one hundred people. And that might be a conservative guess. I mean, after all, you lived in a frat house in college. That's five girls a week, for four years, at least. I'm refraining from doing the math."

"You're the only one on my list I don't regret," Nick replied in an attempt to duck Greg's hurtful comments.

Greg scoffed. "How can you say that when you don't even remember your whole list, because it's too many people?" he asked. "Here, let's try this. Let's start at the beginning, and work our way up, and come up with a rough estimate, okay?"

"Greg," Nick said, his voice a mix of pleading and warning.

"When did you lose your virginity?"

"Don't make me do this," Nick all but begged.

"Seriously. How old were you? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Stop." Nick wanted to sound firm, but his voice was broken and soft.

Greg rolled his eyes in frustration. "How old were you Nick?"

"Nine!" Nick yelled, mostly to make the other man shut up.

Greg was taken aback and lost his momentum for a moment, but still wouldn't let up. "That's not funny Nick," he said with a dry laugh.

"Do you see me laughing?" Nick replied. "The first time I had sex with someone, I was nine years old. She was in her thirties, I don't know exactly. But I was nine."

Greg instantly forgot about what had been the reason for this fight in the first place. His anger and hurt from earlier was replaced by a severe pain and remorse for bringing this out of Nick when it couldn't have been farther from his intentions. Now, he had no idea what to do about it.

Nick looked down at the sand and wished Greg would look somewhere other than straight at him. "Look, I didn't tell you that so you would feel sorry for me and forgive me, okay? I just, I don't know. I wanted to tell you, I always have. I knew I could trust you, and that you would be a good person to talk to about it because I've never actually talked to anyone about it more than telling Catherine that it had happened. After I got to know you I realized you're a really good listener because you don't try to fix people's problems, you just listen when they want you to and talk if they want you to. I don't know. I'm sorry I told you. I know this doesn't change what I did, that's not why I told you. I told you because I really do love you, and you deserve to know. I know I should have told you before you decided to sleep with me, but there was never a good time to bring it up, ya know?" Nick sighed heavily and kept his eyes on the sand. "Anyway, I'm sorry. For Jenna, for everything."

Without looking up, Nick turned and walked into the forest. He was headed for the water fall, but didn't make it that far. A lump had formed in his chest and grew tighter and heavier with each step he took. It finally weighed him down and made him collapse onto the ground with the water fall in sight. He could hear the water crashing down; the sound was calming and irritating at the same time. He leaned up against the nearest tree and tried to catch his breath. He was unable to do so before Greg appeared before him, kneeling on the damp ground so they could look one another in the eyes.

"What do you mean?" Greg asked.

Nick shook his head slightly. "What do I mean about what?"

"You said you should have told me, about that woman, before I decided to have sex with you. Why did you say that? What does that mean?"

Nick frowned and looked at Greg as if that were the stupidest question that had ever been asked. It was apparently so stupid that Nick thought it wasn't even worthy of a response, so Greg had to fill in the blanks for himself.

"Does it mean that you think that if you had told me what had happened, that I wouldn't have wanted to have sex with you?" he asked hesitantly.

Nick's silence and the pain in his eyes radiated an affirmative response without words. He wanted to get up and run away, but was unable to move even the slightest muscle. He was locked in place by Greg's eyes. They should have been filled with hate, contempt and rage, but instead conveyed something that Nick had never seen before and had no idea of how to go about beginning to define it. All he knew was that it was definitely new, and it definitely scared him because it did not understand it, nor did he understand the man that it was coming from.

At this point, he didn't even understand himself.


	11. Made of Steel

This is just a short little chapter to continue with last chapter's events and buffer between that and what is to come next.

I also wanted to post again soon after the last one as a thank you to all of you who waited so long for me to update. I apologize for the wait; the summer was much busier than I had anticipated. Thank you for sticking with this story, I promise you won't regret it!

* * *

><p>"I really don't want to talk about this," Nick stated, as if it weren't already obvious.<p>

Greg was now sitting on the forest floor in front of Nick, who was bracing himself against the tree behind him as if it were his only lifeline. The Texan kept his eyes downcast, away from Greg's, which were slowly filling up with tears as the minutes dragged on, heavy with their silence. Nick had refused to answer Greg's question, and the younger man had refused to just drop it and let it go. Nick had said himself that he had always wanted to talk to him about what had happened, and he doubted there would be a better time than right. So he stood his ground, or rather sat there on it stubbornly, waiting for Nick to give in and spill his guts.

"You brought it up," Greg replied.

"Because you made me," Nick spat.

Greg sighed heavily. "How was I supposed to know that anything like that had happened to you? I was just trying to make a point, that's all. If I had had any idea, I would have never said anything. You know that. I wasn't trying to trick you into telling me this, I had no idea. I wish it had never happened, and I don't even know exactly what happened."

"It's not going to change anything," Nick said matter of factly. "It's just going to make you regret sleeping with me even more, and make me feel even worse about everything I've done to you. I know I deserve it, but you don't."

Greg shook his head slowly in an attempt to get Nick to look up at him, but he didn't. "I don't understand what you mean by that. Why would it make me regret sleeping with you?"

Nick closed his eyes and covered his head with his hands. "I don't want to talk about this," he repeated with more desperation in his voice this time. "I don't think I can, and it's not going to change anything, so what's the point?"

"To help you," Greg replied. "You said yourself that you always wanted to talk to me about it, even before we got together. I'd really rather not talk about how you slept with my cousin, and this seems to be the only other topic of conversation available to us. If you don't want to talk, I will. I know I don't know the whole story, and it's okay if you don't want to tell me. I can't even imagine what it must be like, so I'm not going to pretend to understand. I just want you to know that whatever happened, telling me before all of this wouldn't have changed how I feel about you. It wouldn't have deterred me from sleeping with you. I don't know why you think that, but it's not true. I would have been just as attracted to you as I am now. As mad as I am about what happened with Jenna, I'm still attracted to you, physically and emotionally. I just wish I wasn't because it reminds me of the fact that you can hurt me any time you choose, and I thought that you never would."

Nick dropped his hands to his sides and finally looked up at Greg. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't think I would. I thought that you already thought poorly of me and it wouldn't have surprised you, which I guess it didn't. But I didn't think I meant enough to you that what I did would have hurt you. I thought it would have just been her hooking up with a random guy or something."

"You think I thought of you as a random guy? Even before we got here?" Greg asked. Nick nodded slowly. "You're an idiot," the younger said plainly.

"What the hell did I do?" Nick wanted to know.

Greg laughed. "You never realized how much you meant to me, even before all of this. Even as 'just a friend.' I always looked up to you and wanted to work with you so I could learn from you. I always wanted to be one of the guys and hang out with you and Warrick. You guys were like the cool kids in high school that everyone wanted to be friends with. I could never consider you a random guy. Not back then, not now, not ever. And you're an idiot for ever thinking anything to the contrary."

Nick was at a loss for words, but felt compelled to fill the silence before it grew too thick. "I just always thought you hated me. Or strongly disliked me at least. I don't know. I guess I was wrong, and I'm glad I was. I just wish I hadn't have done anything to hurt you because that's honestly the last thing I ever wanted to do. And I want to tell you what happened, when I was younger, but I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll think I'm making it up so that you won't be mad at me anymore."

Greg shook his head forcefully. "No I won't. I know you would never lie about something like this. Cases involving kids always get to you, probably because of what happened, and I know you well enough to know that you would never lie about something so serious. You don't have to tell me. Just know that if you want to, you can. I'm pissed at you Nick, I'm not going to act like I'm not. But we're still stuck here together. You're not on your own. If you need me, you know where to find me. I won't be far away. I'll always be in sight."


	12. Mutt

Greg stayed true to his word. He did so by remaining directly in Nick's line of sight, right on front of him, unwavering in the least. Nick kept his head down and his eyes closed, but was aware of Greg's presence all the same. He wanted to tell him everything, but had no idea how he was supposed to begin telling such an awful tale. He wished there was a bottle of whiskey in his reach at the moment that he could gulp down so that he could recount what had happened to him as a child so that Greg might begin to be able to understand. But without the bottle of whiskey around, Nick had to begin simply by doing just that. Beginning.

"My parents were away at a wedding," he said without looking up. He knew he had Greg's undivided attention without having to double check. "Most of my siblings were old enough and went with them. It was my cousin's wedding, I think. One of my sisters didn't go, she stayed at her friend's house. My brother Jason stayed too, at the house with me. He was fourteen, when it happened."

Nick swallowed hard as he finally looked up to meet Greg's piercing stare. "Jason stayed in his room most of the night, playing video games and stuff. He kicked me out after a while because I kept bothering him. I was being a pain in the ass all night, I don't remember why. The babysitter, Linda, she told me that I was misbehaving and had to go to bed early or she would call my parents and make them come home to deal with me. She said that didn't have to happen, that she could deal with me. I didn't know what she meant. I just went in my room. I was going to read or watch TV or something. And then she came in."

The Texan hadn't realized that his hands were shaking until they felt them vibrating against Greg's. The younger man had at some point reached over and took Nick's hands in his own to try and steady them, but was unsuccessful. Greg held them gently, yet firmly, silently encouraging Nick to go on.

"She told me to put my pajamas on, but she didn't leave the room. I grabbed them and tried to go to the bathroom to change, but she closed the door and stood in front of it. She told me to just change right there. I didn't know what was going on, I was so confused and starting to get scared, so I just did what she said. I didn't want her to call my parents." Tears started falling from Nick's tired eyes, but he didn't stop. "I tried to change as fast as I could, but I was so nervous and was trying to rush, and she came over and stopped me from putting my other clothes on. She pushed me down on the bed and held me there. I tried to get her off me, but she was so much bigger and stronger than I was. I didn't know what else to do. After she...finished...before she left she said that if I told my parents, they would be mad at me. That it was my fault because I had done something wrong. I didn't want them to know because they would get angry with me, so I just got dressed and sat there. Waiting for my mom to come home."

"You never told your parents," Greg stated rather than asked.

Nick shook his head. "I didn't want them to get mad at me."

"They wouldn't have gotten mad at you," Greg said, his voice low and calming. "You didn't do anything wrong Nicky."

"Yes I did," Nick argued. "She told me I did, that's why she did that to me. I was bothering Jason all night. They would have blamed it on me, so I never told them. I never told anyone, except for Catherine after that case with the boy who died at his therapists house. You remember. We never talked about it ever again. She never brought it up. I never told anyone else."

Greg swallowed painfully against the lump that had formed in his throat. "What about Jason?" he asked carefully.

"I never told him. He locked his door after he kicked me out, which I'm glad for. That means she left him alone. He could have fought her off though. She wouldn't have been able to do anything to him, so I'm glad it only happened to me. And I couldn't tell him, because he would only blame himself and it wasn't his fault."

"It wasn't your fault either," Greg added before Nick could say anything else.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," Nick replied.

Greg shook his head. "It wouldn't have made a difference. It wouldn't have changed my mind about how I feel about you."

"Yes it would have," Nick countered. "You don't have to admit it. It's okay. I know, and I understand. I don't blame you." Before Greg could retort, Nick went on. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. It's not going to get us anywhere good."

"Then what do you want to talk about? What can get us somewhere good?"

Nick sighed heavily. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I fucked up. I slept with your cousin, which you basically told me not to do. And I did it anyway. I didn't mean to hurt you, but that doesn't mean much because I did. I don't want to ever cause you pain, I swear it."

"Why did you sleep with her?" Greg asked, wanting an answer for Nick's behavior. "Don't say you don't know or because you were drunk. What's the real reason? You're not an asshole, you're not a player. Despite what some people think of you, none of that is true. You're a southern gentleman through and through. So why did you sleep with her?"

Nick hung his head again. "Will you forgive me if I tell you the truth?"

"Probably not," Greg replied. "I don't think I can ever totally forgive you. It doesn't work like that. But maybe I'll be able to be around you for more than thirty seconds without wanting to bash your skull in."

"Just do it," was Nick's answer as he looked back up at Greg.

"Do what?" Greg asked.

"Bash my skull in," Nick replied in pure sincerity. "Just kill me."

Greg rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Yeah, sure. I'll just go find the biggest rock I can and beat you to death with it. Come on Nick, stop fucking around. If you want to talk, let's talk. If not, I'll leave you alone. I want to help you with, you know, what you told me about, but that's not what you want so we're left with why you slept with Jenna."

"Warrick," Nick said softly.

Greg thought that he had misheard the other man, but the Texan's stone silence and the look in his eyes told him otherwise. "Don't do that," Greg said in a warning tone.

"You want to know why? He's why."

"He has nothing to do with this. Don't bring your dead best friend into this so that I'll feel bad for you and lay down under you again."

"You asked, I answered," Nick said. "He has everything to do with everything."

"He's dead, Nick. He's gone."

"I fucking know that Greg," Nick said as he stood up quickly; Greg did the same as an act of defense. "He's dead, I'm not."

"How does he have anything to do with Jenna?"

"Because after he died, I felt so numb. I felt worse than I did after I was buried alive. I felt like my heart stopped working and nothing I did could make it work any more. So I started going to bars and clubs and meeting these random women and sleeping with them, to give myself some sort of connection. To try and feel alive. And it didn't work. Not even close. I stopped trying to make it, but let Jenna get the best of me."

"Why?" Greg wanted to know. "Why do all of that? Why do you feel like that?"

"Because it's my fault he's dead. And before you tell me I did everything I could and all that other bullshit Grissom and Catherine spewed at me, you're wrong. I didn't do everything I could. I was terrified of what was happening to him and didn't know what to do, so I did jack shit. I gave him some money and yelled at him once for doing pills. That's it. Then he died, as I sat in the diner and thought about the best way to go about fucking the waitress. While I was sitting there trying to get laid, my best friend was murdered a hundred yards away. I should have gone out there with him, at least."

"McKean would have killed you too," Greg replied, somewhat lamely.

"Then I should be dead too. I've had so many second chances when it comes to near death experiences. Why did Warrick only get one? That's not fair."

"It's also not fair that you're blaming what you did on his death."

"It's the truth," Nick said with a shrug. "I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd react this way. I'm not blaming it on him and saying you have to forgive me because Warrick died. I'm just saying that it wasn't off of a whim, or because I wanted to hurt you, or because I'm a man whore. I just...I don't know. I'm sorry, okay? Do you at least believe that? That I'm sorry and I wish I could change what I did?"

Greg shook his head slowly. "I don't know what to believe anymore Nick. I'm stuck here on an island with the guy I've been in love with for god knows how long, and somehow he felt the same way about me."

"Feels," Nick corrected.

Greg went on as if Nick had never spoken. "It's like a fucking movie Nick. Who actually gets stuck on a deserted island like this, other than Tom Hanks? Fucking nobody. But here we are. And it actually wasn't that bad. And now, I don't know. I don't know whether or not I want to die here or go back to Vegas and forget I was ever even here. Forget that I was ever even with you."


	13. Crashing Down

The sun was starting to set, but it would still be a long time before darkness would cover the island for the night. Greg had wandered out of the forest without so much as another word, and purely out of habit Nick followed him, staying far enough behind so that he wouldn't further agitate the younger man. Greg went back into the ocean, floating on his back as he had done earlier. Nick sat back down on the still warm sand. He leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees, linking his hands together to hold himself in place. He sat there and watched Greg float calmly and peacefully. He knew that if it were at all possible, Greg would have elected to stay like that forever. Floating weightless in the warm clear water, away from all the problems and tensions that life brings. Namely, away from Nick.

The sun was halfway down the sky when Greg suddenly jolted upright. The sudden movement startled Nick, and for a split second his heart jumped into his throat at the thought that maybe a shark had bitten him. His own close encounter had put that as a constant fear in his mind. But when Greg didn't scream out or start thrashing around, Nick knew it was something else. He realized that Greg was staring straight up, watching the sky. Nick turned his own gaze upwards and noticed the plane flying overhead. It was barely more than a speck, but it was definitely a plane. A rescue plane? Could be. Greg certainly thought it was; he bolted out of the water to the beach and without hesitation started for the rocks.

"It's way too high," Nick said, guessing what Greg's intentions were. "There's no way in hell they're going to see us down here."

Greg ignored the other man as if he no longer existed. He quickly climbed the jagged rocks to the very top, the same spot the had jumped off together the first day they had arrived on the island. He extended his hands over his head as he started jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Nick watched as the ex-labrat tried to get the plane's attention, but knew his efforts would be futile. It was only a minute or so before the plane passed directly overhead before continuing on its way over the island, quickly disappearing from sight. But Nick gave up looking at the plane almost immediately. His eyes were still trained on Greg, and he watched as the other man dropped his arms to his sides in defeat. Nick expected him to come right down, but it appeared as though Greg was going to stay up there for the rest of his life if it meant flagging down a plane. Or staying away from Nick.

"Come down Greg," Nick pleaded. He was surprised at how weak his voice sounded now.

"Sorry, I was just trying to get you out of here," Greg mumbled, just loud enough for Nick to hear him.

The Texan hung his head for a second, but raised it in time to be able to see Greg lose his footing when he started to climb down. He lost his balance and started to fall backwards. He regained it for a moment, but then lost it altogether. Nick watched helplessly as Greg stumbled over backwards. Nick could no longer see him and was hoping that his spiky hair would emerge from the other side and Greg would climb up and over to come back down to the sand. When he didn't, Nick knew deep down to expect the worst.

Nick took off in a dead sprint as if he were chasing after a murder suspect. He raced across the sand and around the rocks to the other side, where he instantly saw Greg's motionless body floating in the waves that were crashing against the sharp rocks. Nick didn't slow down one beat. He ran full-out into the water, diving forward through the waves. He had his arms around Greg in seconds. He pulled Greg against him so that the younger man's back was flush against his own chest. Nick leaned back and started kicking as hard as he could, propelling them backwards through the water. He looked down and saw the wound on Greg's forehead that sliced across his tanned skin and disappeared into his hair. The blood was seeping steadily from it, covering Nick's own bare chest. It felt like hours before Nick's feet finally touched the sandy bottom and he was able to back pedal out of the water, dragging Greg out of the water with him up onto the sand.

Nick carefully lowered Greg down to the ground. They were still close enough to the shoreline that when the waves broke and rushed across the sand, the water splashed against Greg's feet and swept up to his knees. But Nick didn't even notice. All he could see was Greg's already pale face, his eyes closed and hair matted to his head. The cut on his forehead was still bleeding, as were the various other cuts he had sustained from the rocks. The worst of them started on his left hip and sliced up and back halfway up his torso and was much deeper than the rest. Nick took only as much time as it took to catch his breath before he swept Greg up in his arms and quickly carried him into their cave to do everything he could to assess the younger man's wounds.

He gently put Greg back down, this time in the raft, on the pile of clothes they slept on to keep themselves warm. Nick used the first things he could grab to put pressure on Greg's wounds to slow the bleeding. As he was pressing against the younger man, Nick leaned over and pressed his ear to Greg's chest. He held his own breath and tried to quiet his own heart beating in his ears so he could listen for Greg's. He felt a soft but steady pulsing against his ear, and he sighed in relief upon the realization that Greg was still alive. So far.

"Greg, wake up," Nick choked out. "Please just open your eyes. Come on man, open your eyes."

He pressed harder on Greg's wounds, hoping that it would jolt him awake and he would sit up and smile as if it were all a joke. He wasn't bleeding so bad anymore, but the damage was still severe and Nick highly doubted they had what they needed on the island to treat Greg's injuries. Nick knelt at his side, tears steadily flowing from his eyes, for over an hour before Greg's eyes finally fluttered open.

"Can you hear me?" Nick asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Greg frowned in confusion, but nodded nonetheless. "Can you see me?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Greg murmured. He sounded as if he were drunk.

Nick couldn't help but smile at the small battles they were winning at the moment. "Do you remember what happened?"

Greg closed his eyes, but remained conscious. "There was a plane," he said. His voice was so soft and it appeared that it was causing him immense pain to speak at all.

"Yeah, there was a plane," Nick agreed. "You went on to the rocks to try to flag it down. Then you slipped. You're hurt pretty bad Greg, but you're going to be okay. Are you in pain?" Nick asked, even though he already knew the answer. He was just trying to keep Greg awake.

Greg nodded slightly. "Yes," he replied. "My head is killing me. Am I going to die?"

Nick shook his head even though Greg's eyes were closed and he couldn't see. "No, you're not. I'm going to take care of you, I can fix this. You're going to be fine, okay? Do you trust me?" When he didn't receive a response, Nick shook Greg's shoulder enough to garner his attention again. "Greg? Do you trust me?"

Greg opened his eyes and looked up at Nick. "I always have."

"Good," Nick responded. "I need to clean out your cuts. You need to try and stay awake for me," he explained as he began ripping a shirt into strips of cloth.

Greg watched as Nick worked, ripping several strips of different sizes of cloth out of their random assortment of clothes from the washed up suitcase. Then Nick was gone for a few moments down to the ocean where he soaked a few of the strips in salt water in order to clean out the wounds. He returned and knelt next to Greg again with the strips and a bottle of fresh water in his hand. He poured some water into Greg's mouth to quench his growing thirst, and saved the rest to be able to rinse out the injuries.

Nick set the salt water strips next to Greg's side where the worst of the cuts was. "This is going to hurt," Nick informed the other man. "But they have to be cleaned out."

Greg swallowed hard against the pain he was already in. "Okay," he said. "Just do it."

Nick wasted no time in beginning. He grabbed a strip he had soaked in the salt water and ran it over the cut on Greg's side. The younger man immediately screamed in pain and bolted upright, causing himself more pain. He tried to push Nick away, but the older man was stronger. Nick pushed Greg back so he was laying down again and held him there with his left arm as he used his right to clean to wound. The salt water was helping, but causing Greg an immense amount of pain. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, but this did nothing to make it go away. Nick worked as quickly as he could to get it over with, but at the same time had to make sure it was as clean as he could get it. After a grueling half hour of cleansing all of the cuts on Greg's body, Nick finally rinsed them out before wrapping the younger man's torso in dry, clean strips of cloth to keep them clean. He used gauze and steri strips from the first aid kid they had found in the raft to cover up the cut on Greg's forehead. When he finished, Nick sat back on his heels and stared down at the injured man before him.

"It's over," Nick said gently, taking Greg's hand in his. "It's all over."

Greg was breathing so heavily that he could barely hear him. Nick gave him more water and slowly ran his hand through Greg's hair to try and calm him down, but it took a while before Greg's breathing returned to normal. It went from heaving to ragged and shuddering, but at least he was breathing, Nick thought.

"I was just trying to get you out of here," Greg said, keeping his eyes closed to lessen the severity of the spinning of his head.

Nick hung his head and squeezed Greg's hand. "I'm just fine here, with you. You have to stay awake with me for a little while, okay? You have a concussion. I can't let you go to sleep."

"Why not?" Greg asked in frustration. "I'm so tired. I don't feel well Nick. Just let me sleep."

Nick understood the severity of the situation at Greg's ramblings. He didn't comprehend what was going on; his concussion was very serious. "I can't."

"Why?" Greg demanded.

"I'm afraid you won't wake up," Nick answered honestly.

Greg sighed sadly. "You said I was going to be okay," he reminded Nick.

"You will be if you stay awake with me. Just keep talking to me. I know it hurts, but it's going to get better. I promise."

Greg didn't seem to believe Nick, and Nick didn't even believe it himself. He wanted to, but everything he knew about their situation was telling him that Greg wasn't going to make it. His wounds were going to get infected, there was very little that could be done about that. His concussion wasn't being treated properly. Greg was going to get sicker and sicker and die within two weeks.

And all Nick could do was sit at his side and watch.


	14. Divine Intervention

Three whole days had passed since Greg had fallen from the rocks. Seventy-two hours of Nick sitting by his side, sleeping only barely, watching as the man before him was slowly dying. Nick was doing everything he could to help him, but there were very limited resources at his disposal. He went to the waterfall several times a day to get Greg fresh water to drink and fruit to eat, but it was doing very little to help. The wound on Greg's side had become infected, and there wasn't anything Nick could do to stop it. He cleaned it every few hours with salt and then fresh water, but there was so much sand and bacteria in it that he couldn't even see. He scrubbed the injured area to such an extent that the pain of it often knocked Greg unconscious for hours. A thin red line had appeared under Greg's; it was snaking up from the wound towards his heart. Nick knew that was the infection, and soon it would reach Greg's lungs. When that happened, it wouldn't be long before it go to his heart, and then he would be dead.

Nick could only remember contemplating killing one other person. Jeffrey McKeen had been the only human being Nick had ever seriously considered killing, and that was because the other man had killed Warrick and Nick had been given an ample opportunity to return the favor to the former under sheriff. Now Nick found himself contemplating killing yet again. As he laid there with Greg in his arms, trying to keep him warm and comfortable despite their situation, he couldn't help but think of putting the other man out of his misery. He was suffering, and Nick knew that in only a few more days, he would die. Given all he knew, Nick figured Greg had roughly four days left before the infection spread to his lungs and heart, and then he would die a painful death. He spent each day in constant pain; his concussion doing nothing to help matters. Nick knew he would never be able to bring himself to kill Greg, but he comforted himself by promising that in three and a half days, if things were bad enough, he would hold a shirt over Greg's face while he was sleeping until he stopped breathing.

"Are you awake?" Greg asked so weakly that at first Nick thought he had imagined it.

"Yes," Nick replied, shifting their bodies so he could look down at Greg's eyes as they slowly opened.

Greg blinked until his vision cleared and he could focus on Nick. "I need you to tell me the truth."

"About what?" Nick asked.

"Am I going to die?" Greg questioned. Before Nick could reply, the younger man added, "you said before you never wanted to lie to me. That's why you told me about Jenna. So don't lie to me now, not about this. I know there's nothing you can do about it, I just need to hear the truth. From you."

Nick closed his eyes, causing the tears that had built up there to spill down his cheeks. He opened his eyes again to find Greg's locked onto his own. "Your wound is infected," he said. "I tried to get it clean, but I just don't have anything to disinfect it. I tried Greg, I swear I did."

"I know," Greg replied. "Am I going to die?"

Nick nodded slightly and choked back a sob. "Yes," he said sadly. "In a few days, the infection will shut down your lungs and heart." Knowing it was what he wanted to hear, Nick reiterated, "you're going to die Greg."

Greg closed his eyes and pressed himself against Nick, apparently trying to sink himself into the older man completely. "I'm sorry you'll be stuck here by yourself."

"It's not your fault," Nick said. His voice was muffled as he buried his face in Greg's hair, trying to take in as much of him while he still had time left.

"It's not your fault either," Greg replied as he laced his fingers through Nick's. "I forgive you Nick, for Jenna, for everything. I don't care about that now. I know it doesn't make much difference, but I'm sorry I ruined our last few days together. I love you."

Nick squeezed Greg as tight as he could without causing him any more pain. "I love you too. I'm so sorry for everything Greg, I would do anything to change everything. I don't want to lose you, not like this. Not forever."

"It's not going to be forever," Greg assured Nick. "I'll always be with you. Don't you dare forget about me or I'll haunt the shit out of you."

Nick laughed for what felt like the first time in years. "I could never forget about you."

Greg smiled against Nick's chest and calmly drifted off to sleep. He wouldn't wake up again on the island.

Two days passed, and as he was sleeping Greg's breathing became ragged and strained. Nick knew the infection had reached his lungs, and the next twenty hours or so would be Greg's last. When Greg's breathing became more steady, Greg slid out from under him and staggered out to the beach. The sun was high in the sky and he had to squint because he had not been out in the daylight much since Greg had gotten hurt. Nick fell to his knees and held his head in his hands as his pent up anger overtook his body. He couldn't cry or scream or yell; he was too upset and frustrated at the situation to do anything. He could barely breathe and felt like he was having a heart attack.

And then he heard an engine, and the sound of rushing water. But he refused to look up, because he thought his mind was playing tricks on him and he couldn't take any more heartbreak at this point. But then he heard voices, and the engine cutting out, and he finally looked up to a see a small speedboat float up onto the sand a hundred yards away from him with three men inside it, who were jumping out of the boat before it was even stopped and started running across the sand and water towards Nick.

Nick smiled. He couldn't help it. All this time they had been watching the sky, like he had told Greg to do. But Greg had been right from the very beginning. But they still weren't out of the woods, or off the island, just yet.


	15. The Lost Weekend

Nick remained kneeling as the men came sprinting across the sand towards him. He couldn't move a muscle, couldn't believe this was actually happening. He thought he was sleeping and that it was all a dream, but the beating of his heart and the lump in his throat told him that this was real. The first man that reached him was young, younger than he was by a long shot. The man, kid really, came to a sudden stop in front of Nick while the other two older men were struggling to catch up. They were both older than Nick; he could tell that even though they were still fifty feet away. The younger man leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees so he was eye level with Nick. He took only a few seconds to catch his breath before he spoke.

"Are you okay man?" He asked. Nick just stared back at him, still unable to move or do anything. "What are you doing here? Are you hurt? Can you even hear me?"

"Yeah," Nick finally replied with a nod. "I can hear you."

"Are you hurt?"

Nick shook his head. "No. I'm fine. But my friend is dying."

The other man was shocked at how calm Nick was. The other two men eventually caught up, but were so confused as to why this man was on a deserted island that they didn't say anything, they just stood behind the younger man and let him talk to Nick.

"Where is your friend?" the young man asked. He wasn't sure if Nick was delusional from the heat or in shock from an injury, or if he was fully aware of what was going on.

"He's in our cave," Nick said as he stood up suddenly.

The realization of the situation finally sunk all the way into Nick's system, and he was now fully alert and running on pure adrenaline. He quickly got to his feet and took off towards the cave with the three other men hot on his heels. They reached it in no time, and when they were all standing there at the entrance, looking at Greg laying motionless in the raft, Nick realized that the cave really wasn't as big as they thought now that it was filled with people.

"What happened to him?" one of the older men asked, finding his voice.

"He fell off the cliff," Nick explained. "He got cut up pretty bad and it got infected and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't help him. He's dying. He'll be dead in a few hours if we don't get him out of here. Can you get him out of here? To a hospital? How far are we from a hospital?"

"We're about a hundred miles off the coast of San Diego. We do a scuba charter out of there to the islands out here, but haven't been out in a while," the younger man answered. "We can get you to our plane at another island a half hour on the boat from here, and then it's about a two hour plane ride to San Diego."

"Okay, let's get him in the boat," Nick said.

The four of them carefully maneuvered around the raft and each took a limb of Greg's and lifted him up. It was much easier than they thought to get him to the speed boat because of how skinny he was now due to all of the weight he had lost since getting stuck on the island. They quickly got Greg into the boat and were speeding across the water before Nick realized. He was sitting on end of the seat that ran across the back of the boat with Greg laying across it, his head rested on Nick's lap and pointed straight up towards the sky, his eyes still closed.

"What's his name?" the younger man asked.

Nick barely heard him over the roar of the engine and the rush of the waves. "Greg," he replied weakly. "I'm Nick."

"My name's Ryan," the youngest offered. "The guy driving is my uncle Mac, and the other guy is his business partner Steve." He went quiet for a minute or so before he asked, "how long have you been on that island?"

Nick shook his head slowly. "I don't know exactly."

"How did you get there?"

It actually took a second for Nick to remember. "We were on a plane coming back from Hawaii."

A look of realization came across Ryan's face. "That was almost seven months ago."

"Sounds about right," Nick mumbled.

"Are you hurt at all?" Ryan asked, handing Nick a bottle of water that he drank in two gulps.

"No," Nick replied. "I'm fine."

Ryan nodded slightly. "We don't have any food on the boat, we were just going out for a quick scout when we saw you on the beach. But we have stuff at the cottage on the other island. We'll be there soon, and we'll get you guys help." He put his hand on Nick's knee and squeezed his reassuringly. "You're going to be fine."

"I know," Nick responded. "It's Greg I'm worried about."

The two men then allowed the sounds of the boat and the ocean to drown them out and rode out the rest of the trip in silence. Fifteen minutes or so later, they were docking at another small island where Nick could immediately see a small house a few feet from the shoreline. There was a seaplane docked to the left of where they pulled up in the boat. Without so much as a word to one another, the four conscious men migrated to the back of the boat where Greg was laying on the seat. Mac and Steve carefully picked him up and swiftly carried him over to the plane. Nick slowly stood and got off of the boat and stood on the dock, watching. All of the energy he had felt before from the adrenaline rush was now gone and he felt as if he were about it collapse. He somehow managed to make it over to the plane, where Greg had been safely loaded on.

"We can only take him back right now," Ryan said from behind Nick. "The plane is a single engine and is really only made for one person, but it will be fine with Mac flying it back with Greg. He'll get him back to San Diego and right to the hospital, then send a medical helicopter out here to get you."

Nick nodded slightly. "I don't care about me, I'm fine. As long as Greg gets to a hospital."

"That's exactly where he's headed," Mac assured him.

"His name is Greg Sanders," Nick informed him. "He's from Santa Monica, California. Tell the hospital that, they'll find his parents. Then I need you to call the Las Vegas police department. Get a hold of captain Jim Brass and tell him you found us. If you can't reach him, call the crime lab and ask for DB Russell."

Mac nodded once. "And what's your name?"

"Nick," he replied. "Nick Stokes."

Without any more conversation, Mac got into the cockpit and expertly turned the plane toward the open ocean. Without what seemed like any effort at all, the small plane raced across the water, and took off into the sky. Nick stood on the dock, watching. Watching the sky.

* * *

><p>When Nick opened his eyes, he was staring up at a pale white ceiling. He was confused for a few moments, because he forgot where he was. It took a minute to remember that they had gotten off the island. Greg was on his way to the hospital, and Nick was laying on the couch in the cabin. His stomach hurt from the sandwich he had eaten before he had fallen asleep. His system wasn't used to that much food yet. He sat up slowly, and upon doing so, was handed a cup of cold water.<p>

"Thank you," he said to Ryan before gulping down the entire cup in one swift motion.

"Is there anything else I can get you?"

Nick shook his head. "No, I'm fine. How long as I asleep for?"

Ryan looked down at his watch before replying. "Only about forty-five minutes. Mac is going to radio us when they land in San Diego at the hospital," he said, handing Nick the radio to hang on to.

The Texan nodded weakly. "Thank you for your help. You saved our lives. When I get back to Vegas, I don't know if I can even access my bank account anymore, but I'll give you guys every last cent that I have. I don't-"

Ryan held up a hand to silence the rambling man. "You're not giving us anything. We did what we knew was right. Helping you out is reward enough."

Nick smiled and sat back against the couch, trying to relax. He gripped the radio in his hand as tight as he could, as if the harder he held it the sooner Mac would radio in to them saying that Greg was fine and everything was going to be okay. For the first time in a long time, Nick began thinking about what things were going to be like when he got back to Vegas. There's no way his job was still there waiting for them; they couldn't have held out hope for almost seven months that him and Greg would return. What about his house? His car? He was sure his neighbors would have adopted his dog, Copper, seeing as how they spent more time with Copper than Nick did himself. His parents probably took care of everything that they could, but how long could they have been expected to hold on to his stuff for? Had they given up hope?

Ryan could see the wheels turning in Nick's head, and thought he could use a distraction. Something to help the time pass faster. "How did you guys survive on that island for so long?" he asked.

Nick shrugged, and for a moment Ryan thought the conversation was over before it even began. But then Nick answered by saying "We got lucky. There was a fresh water pond, running water from a waterfall. We ate all the fruit we could find and even caught fish and cooked it on the fire we made. We had that cave for shelter. A suitcase from the crash washed up on shore, so we had extra clothes and everything."

He was quiet for a few seconds, and then continued to talk. It was having a therapeutic affect on him. "It's all kind of fuzzy, everything that happened. I don't even really remember the crash anymore. It feels like we were there a lot longer than seven months, but it all kind of feels like one long day to me now. I guess what I think of as being a day or two was really weeks, or even a whole month. I lost my sense of time I suppose."

Ryan nodded slowly. "Did you know Greg before the island?" he asked.

"Yeah. I've known him for about fifteen years now. We work together in Vegas, at the crime lab. We're CSIs. Were CSIs, I guess. We were coming back from his cousin's wedding. It feels like a lifetime ago," he replied with a heavy sigh. Then it was Nick's turn to be inquisitive. "Do you think Greg's going to die?"

Ryan looked at him with a blank stare, unsure of how to respond. "I'm biased," Nick continued. "I want him to live more than anything. I can't think about it objectively. You saw him, the shape he was in. What do you think? Is he going to die?"

"I don't know," the younger man stammered. "I'm not a doctor, far from it. He didn't look that bad, and I bet once he gets the medical attention he needs, he'll be fine."

"Do you really believe that?" Nick asked, his voice soft and weak.

For some reason, Ryan felt compelled to tell the truth. He couldn't lie to this man who had gone through so much. "No," he all but whispered in response.

Nick let his eyes close slowly, pushing the tears from his eyes to roll down his cheeks. "Neither do I."


	16. Last Train Home

From what he was later told, Nick learned that he passed out shortly after his brief conversation with Ryan. The exhaustion, dehydration, sun stroke, and near broken heart finally got the best of him and his body just shut down. He didn't remember any of it; the Coast Guard helicopter coming to their (well, really only his) rescue and airlifting him to the hospital in San Diego. Apparently, there was fear that Nick wouldn't make it to the hospital. He was fine one minute, as Ryan recounted to the medics, and then the next he was out and couldn't be awakened. His pulse and breathing were dangerously slow. But when he arrived at the hospital and was hooked up to a few IVs and stabilized, the doctors assured Nick's new friends that he was going to be okay. Greg's health, on the other hand, was touch and go at that point. It would be a few more hours before they knew for sure how exactly he was doing.

Nick awoke with a start, and was completely unaware of where he was. His mouth was extremely dry and he instantly received a head rush once he opened his eyes. The room he was in was very dimly lit; once he heard the beeping machines and smelled the sterility of his surroundings, he realized he was in the hospital. It all came rushing back to him, the parts he could remember at least. He didn't know how he had gotten to where he was, or how Greg was doing, but he was determined to find out, especially the latter. He ripped the IV out of his arm, not even noticing the pinch of doing so. He did notice, however, that he was wearing scrub pants and a t-shirt. This only barely registered in his mind as he sat up and put his bare feet on the cold floor. It wasn't until he tried to stand that he realized just how weak he actually was.

His shaky legs and the high pitched beeping of his machine did nothing to slow his movements though. He crossed the room as quickly as he could and opened the door. He had to wait for his eyes to adjust because the light in the hallway was much brighter than that of his room. But he didn't even need his sight, not at that very moment at least. He wasn't even in the hallway for five seconds before he heard a familiar voice call out to him. He didn't need to turn around to identify whom it had come from, but he did anyway, because he wanted to see her. He needed to see her.

Sara was embracing him in a tight hug before he even got a full look at her face. She almost knocked him over when she threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. He immediately felt her warm tears run down his neck and she began sobbing against him. He smiled as he rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes, welcoming the familiar embrace of an old friend.

"I thought you were dead," Sara choked out. "For so long we held out hope, but then it was too hard. I can't believe..." she trailed off as the lump in her throat refused to give any more.

Nick pulled away from her, wiping her tears while fighting back his own. "I'm okay," he said reassuringly. "I know it must have sucked, but I'm okay. I'm here now. It's almost over."

Sara nodded as she composed herself, which didn't take long. It was an art she had mastered over the years. "Your parents are going to be here in about three hours," she reported. "I just got off the phone with them when I got here myself. They can't believe it either, they don't think it's really you."

Nick felt his throat thicken as he thought about his parents and siblings and what they must have went through the last seven months. His hands start shaking and he can't tell if it's from fear, adrenaline, exhaustion, or all of the above. "Is anyone else here?" he manages to ask as his brain starts swarming with too many unanswered questions.

"DB and Brass are in the waiting room with Hodges and Morgan. Catherine is on her way out here too. Greg's parents should be getting here any minute."

Nick's head was spinning with the realization of what was going on. They were finally back home, for the most part, but they weren't completely safe yet. At least, Greg wasn't. Nick kept seeing flashes of how Greg looked when he had last seen him. All he could do was hold out the very last amount of hope that he had left, willing that Greg would pull out of this okay.

"Have you seen Greg?" Nick asked. "Is he going to be okay?"

Sara bit her lip as it began to quiver. "They don't know yet," she replied, her voice soft and on the verge of breaking. "They said they'll know soon, we just don't know when exactly 'soon' is."

Before Nick could retort, they were interrupted by a very upset nurse. "What the hell are you doing?" she barked. Before either could reply, she was between the two, grabbing Nick by the arm to escort him back to bed. "Here we all are, thinking you died, but no, you ripped everything out and are strutting around the hallway."

Nick looked at Sara, who was actually forcing back a smile. She followed them in and allowed her smile to emerge as the nurse with the nametag reading "Jane" tucked Nick back into bed. "Now, I know you've been through quite the ordeal," she said, her words now changing to that of a motherly tone. "But you have to rest. You can't be up and running around. You could collapse at any minute, you're nowhere near strong enough yet. I'll send the doctor into see you immediately. Everything looks fine, you just need to rest. I know about your situation; your friends can come and go as they please as long as they don't get you all riled up."

Nurse Jane looked at Sara as she said this with a little smirk before she disappeared to find the doctor. Sara took a seat next to Nick as she was texting the others on her phone to let them know he was awake.

"I can't just sit here and wait," Nick said when Sara looked back up at him.

She sighed heavily. "You're going to have to, we all are. It's been seven months Nick. Seven months. What's a few more hours of waiting?"

That's the last comment Nick can remember of that conversation. He's sure that he and Sara talked more before he passed out again. He even vaguely remembers the others coming into his room, tear filled hugs, and a few words with them, but it's all dripping into one big blur for him. When he can force his eyes to stay open for longer than a flutter, he can just barely make out the images of his parents, but he doesn't remember when they got there. For all he can tell, he hasn't even gotten the chance to talk to them. He drifts off again, for how long there's surely no way of knowing, but this time when he opens his eyes he feels much different. He feels more rested than he has felt since he woke up on that island. He doesn't have to wait for his eyes to focus on the figure sitting in the chair next to him. He can tell simply by the feel of the hand that is holding his. Nick can tell from the dryness of his throat and mouth that he won't be able to speak much, so to get her attention he squeezes her hand gently. The sleeping woman suddenly wakes, and her eyes immediately find his.

Catherine smiles as she stands and kisses Nick on the forehead. Her green eyes are filled with tears by the time it takes her to sit back down. "I never thought that I would ever be this happy to see you," she jokes, eliciting a laugh from the Texan. She places her other hand over his and holds it tightly. "I knew you would make it."

Nick swallows hard in order to speak. "Did Greg?" is all he can manage to force out.

The tears spill from Catherine's eyes, but she nods her head slowly. "He fought off the infection. They patched him up. He has a bad concussion, doesn't really remember anything, but he's going to be okay. We've all been taking turns. I finally convinced your parents to go get some food and some rest; Greg's too. Morgan's with him."

Nick felt as if an enormous weight was lifted off of him. Knowing that Greg was going to be okay was the only thing that would have been able to make him feel even remotely okay himself, and now that was finally happening. He wanted to get up and run to his room, but knew he couldn't. It was time of them to be with their friends and family. Besides, from the sound of things, Greg didn't remember what had happened on the island. Will he remember anything, or will it all slip from his mind like a bad dream?

* * *

><p>Author's note: I know. An extremely long wait for a short chapter. I sincerely apologize, as I always do when this happens. Being a student takes away from hobbies. Again, apologies. I will have the next chapter up quicker than this one!<p> 


	17. Viva Las Vegas

Nick was released from the hospital a week earlier than Greg. It was a strange and uneasy circumstance at times; he went back home to Texas for two weeks, to see his sisters and brother, nieces, nephews, cousins. All the people who never thought that they would see him again, got to see him again. Being surrounded by his family was unlike anything he had ever felt before. He was overjoyed and part of him never wanted to leave. But part of him was struggling with day to day life without Greg by his side. They had spent seven months together, night and day, never out of each others sight, and in each others arms more often than not. Nick had trouble sleeping most nights because he was so used to having Greg's warm body pressed up next to his. When he did sleep, he would wake up with a start, unsure of where he was and what was going on. Every time he opened his eyes, he thought for a brief moment that he was back on the island, in the cave, and was going to look over and see Greg's lifeless body next to him on the sand.

Greg's parents were by his side the week he remained in the hospital after Nick left. They talked to him on a few occasions, when they could while Greg was sleeping, and expressed their gratitude for helping to get their only child off of that island alive. Nick smiled warmly and said that it was Greg who had saved him; nobody but Nick understood that. Greg also went home with his parents, but only for a week. He was overly anxious to get back to Vegas. He returned, and moved in with Sara until he could move into his own apartment at the start of the next month. Until something opened up at the lab, he would work on call mostly, as would Nick when he returned from Texas. A month after the plane crash, DB had been left with no other choice but to hire replacements for his two missing CSIs. It wasn't fair, and Nick and Greg agreed, to let them go now that they had returned. But their services were still needed and wanted nonetheless, and they knew it wouldn't be long before someone would leave on one shift or another and they would be back full time.

Nick didn't get to see Greg in the hospital. It was too hectic, and then before he knew it he was back in Texas. But now he was on the plane, headed back to Vegas, and would speak to Greg for the first time since they got off of the island. He couldn't even remember what the last thing they had said to each other had been. He was thinking of what he was going to say to the younger man the whole flight, and was still thinking as he was on the escalator headed to the exit to catch a cab. He was thinking right up to the point where he walked straight into Greg.

The younger man couldn't help but smile as Nick banged into him. "Watch where you're going man," he said lightly. Nick just stared at him in disbelief. "I'm here to pick you up," he clarified.

Nick was unable to reply. All he could do was follow Greg out to his new car, some sort of Volkswagen SUV that Nick didn't pay any attention to. He got into the passenger seat and buckled himself in for what he knew was going to be a long ride.

"I volunteered to pick you up so that we would have a chance to talk," Greg explained as he started the car and pulled out of the parking garage. "I haven't seen you since, well, I don't really remember much of the last few hours on the island."

Nick swallowed hard. "What do you remember?" he asked, not entirely sure that he wanted to hear the answer.

Greg glanced over at the older man briefly. "I remember a lot more than I let on to everyone else. Didn't want to deal with their questions until I got to talk to you."

"What do you remember?" Nick asked. He was now shifted in his seat and looking directly at Greg.

Greg kept his eyes trained on the road. "I remember everything. The day I woke up to you shaking me. The shark that almost ate you. The day you kissed me. Every single time we had sex. When you told me about Jenna, and what happened when you were nine. Every conversation we had, even the ones about Hodges. I remember jumping off the rocks on the first day, and then falling off of them on one of the last days. I remember you doing everything you could to save me. I remember you telling me I was going to die."

"I thought you were going to," Nick stammered. "I didn't want you to, but I didn't have anything to fight the infection-"

"I know," Greg interjected. "I'm not blaming you for anything, and I'm not mad at you. Not anymore. After everything we've been through, it seems like a complete waste to be mad at you for stuff that might as well have happened a lifetime ago. Because that's essentially what happened to us. We have to start over, almost. It's not going to be easy, so why make it worse by being mad at each other?"

Nick was having trouble comprehending what Greg was saying. He was still in shock from the fact that he had picked him up at the airport, never mind the fact that he seemed to be saying Nick was getting a pass on everything that had happened. They rode in silence the rest of the way. They were well into Vegas by this point, and Nick was looking out the window as the lights for the casinos and hotels were beginning the light up the slowly darkening sky. He felt like a tourist, seeing the bright lights for the very first time. They drove through the strip and eventually came to a stop light in the residential part of town. Greg slowed the car to a stop, and looked over at Nick.

"I go straight to get to Sara's," he said, as if Nick didn't already know that. "And I go left to my new place. Sara's only half expecting you. I told her everything; it just kind of came out one night. She could tell something more was bothering me...you know her. She pries shit outta you."

Nick breathed a laugh, but kept his eyes ahead. He didn't think he could look at Greg without slamming him up against the driver's side door and kissing him.

Greg sighed slightly. "So the choice is all yours. You can stay at Sara's, like you'd planned, until you find your own place. Or you can come home, with me, and we go from there."

Before Nick could say anything verbally, the light changed to green. Greg flicked on the left turn signal, and headed towards his new apartment without another word. Nick finally looked over at him, fighting the smile that was tugging at his lips. He shook his head slowly at the younger man.

"How did you know that I was going to say go left?" he asked.

Greg smiled. "I spent seven months on an island with you Stokes," he replied. "I can read you like a fucking book."

* * *

><p>A shorter chapter again. I'm trying to feel out how many people are still interested in this story before investing a lot more time into it. May wrap it up soon; may continue. I hate to keep neglecting my works, but life tends to get in the way.<p>

Thanks to those who are still reading and reviewing!


	18. Home is Where the Heart Is

It was hard to remember exactly, but Nick was fairly certain that Greg's new apartment was smaller than his old one had been. He hadn't been there in a long time; the last occasion he could actually recall was a week or so after Warrick had died. Prior to that, Nick had only been to his old place a few times, either picking Greg up or dropping him off. Maybe played video games. Or was that at Archie's?

"There's a spare bedroom, if you want," Greg said suddenly, breaking Nick away from his thoughts. "But to be honest, I've been having a hard time sleeping without you."

Nick stopped examining Greg's new apartment and looked at him. He was so much thinner, they both were. Their skin was permanently tanned, but Greg had a new scar on his face that cut diagonally across his forehead from left to right. From the day he had fallen from the rock, trying to flag down the plane to get them off of the island. Nick just stood there, staring at Greg, at his scar, trying to string everything together. It was so hard to remember things that had happened before the island. Warrick dying, Grissom leaving, Catherine leaving; that he could remember. The big stuff. But other things? Day to day stuff? It all felt more like a dream than anything else.

"Nick?" Greg asked when he became aware of the fact that the other man was lost in a haze. "Are you okay?"

Nick shook his head slowly. "You're just going to forgive me? Just like that? You wanted to kill me on the island after I told you. But now you want to sleep in the same bed as me?"

Greg nodded. "Yeah," he replied, as if it were the simplest thing in the world to understand. "You're mad that I'm not mad at you?"

"I'm not mad," came the response. "I'm confused, worried, exhausted. Scared."

"Scared of what?" Greg asked, his brow furrowing with a frown. "Scared of me?"

"I'm scared that you're going to wake up one day, next to me, and snap out of whatever trance you're in right now. You're going to come to your senses, see me, and lose it because of what I did to you."

Greg smiled slightly. "I think you're giving yourself too much credit Nicky."

"Are you drunk?" Nick demanded. "High maybe? There's no way in hell I'm talking to the real Greg Sanders. The one who wanted to bash my skull in with a rock."

"Why did I want to do that?" Greg asked, sarcastically, as if he had forgotten the reason.

Nick laughed humorlessly. "Because I fucked your cousin," he said harshly. He was trying to elicit more emotion from Greg. He was trying to make him angry, because it was making him so uneasy that the younger man was so calm. It didn't make any sense to him.

Instead of becoming angry, Greg just nodded once. "Yes, you did. Before we got stuck on that island. Let me ask you something Nick. Had we not been in that plane crash, what would have happened, between us? When we got back here, to Vegas, what would have happened?" When Nick failed to answer, Greg continued. "Nothing, that's what. We would have returned to our hectic, crazy, normal lives. Solving crimes, together, but as co-workers. Nothing more. We weren't even that good of friends before any of this. We got along, sure, but that was about it."

"So what's your point?" Nick asked, unable to discern for himself.

Greg sighed. "My point is that without getting stuck on that island, we would have never become 'we' at all. I've always had feelings for you, but kept them buried, deep down, because I knew nothing would ever come of them. Not without something significant happening. But it did, and that made you realize how you really felt too."

"What does that have anything to do with Jenna? What does any of this have to do with you being okay with it all?"

"I now look at my life in three completely separate pieces," Greg explained. "Before the crash, when we were on the island, and right now. Before the island, I was a completely different person than I was on the island, and I am now a completely different person than any of those other two times. Do you understand that?"

Nick did understand. He knew exactly what Greg was talking about. What they went through irreparably changed them, and many of those changes were yet to have been discovered. Nick realized that he didn't want Greg to forgive and forget his past because doing so meant moving onto the people that they were now, and finding out just what that truly meant.

"Yes," Nick said softly. "I understand that."

"Then you understand why none of the shit that happened before matters. It was in a different life and happened to a different person. Being angry about that now would be as arbitrary as being angry about the baseball my next door neighbor's kid hit through my window last year. It happened in a different place, in a different time. I can't see the broken glass anymore, I don't even think about it. It happened a lifetime ago, and I'm somewhere and someone completely new."

Nick shook his head. "So does anything that happened on the island even count?"

"What do you mean?" Greg inquired. "Count how?"

"Does anything that happened on the island carry over to now, to this part of your life? If me telling you about Jenna is a moot point, is everything else as well? You can't just erase your past Greg. Believe me, I've tried pretty fucking hard to do that many times. But it doesn't work like that. Can you just eradicate when I kissed you on the beach, or all the times that we had sex, or all the things we talked about? It didn't happen here, it happened thousands of miles away, so screw it. That's what you're saying?"

"Not at all," Greg said, emotion returning to his voice. "But that doesn't mean I haven't tried. I tried so hard to forget about all that, to just pass it off as one bad dream and move on with my life. I wanted to forget about everything that happened between us on the island because I wanted to forget how you made me feel, the good and the bad. But I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. And there's a reason for that. I'm in love with you Nick, plain and simple, for better or for worse. And rather than dwell on the negatives of the past, I want to try and move forward. I want a future with you, here, in Vegas. I want to try it. If you don't, I understand, but you just need to know how I fee-"

Greg had just begun to realize that he was rambling when Nick's lips silenced him. The older, stronger man kissed him hard. Nick's momentum forced Greg backwards until he was against the wall. He was surprised, taken a bit off guard, but in no way did he hesitate. He kissed Nick back just as hard as he grabbed the Texan by the belt and lead him into the bedroom. He pulled Nick down on top of him, and it wasn't until they had to break apart for air did Greg notice his headache as Nick simultaneously noticed that Greg was shaking slightly.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked. "Did I hurt you?"

Greg smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm still concussed. I'm not even supposed to be driving, but I needed to see you. I'm not supposed to be doing anything that gets my heart working too fast, or I get dizzy from a pretty nasty headache."

Nick kissed Greg's forehead sweetly and gently ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "What can I do?"

"Stay here," Greg murmured against Nick's neck when he wrapped his arms around his waist. "Just sleep here, with me, so I can finally get a good night's rest."

"I can do that," Nick replied. He shifted so he was laying flat on his back, with Greg's head on his chest. "I'm sorry I couldn't make you feel better on the island," he confessed.

Greg sighed. "It wasn't your fault. You did everything that you could."

Nick felt tears stinging his eyes. "I was going to kill you," he said so quietly that Greg wasn't sure he had heard him right, until Nick continued. "I didn't want you to suffer. I knew that on that island, you weren't going to last long, and I didn't want you to die in agony. I told myself that if it got to the point where it was really bad, that I would kill you in your sleep so that you wouldn't be in pain anymore."

Greg looked up at Nick silently, urging him to go on. "Obviously it didn't come to that, but I can't stop thinking about it. What if those guys had never shown up? I don't think I would have been able to go through with it. I didn't want you to suffer, but I was so terrified of losing you. I still am. I can't lose you Greg."

"Then you won't," Greg replied simply. "I want this to work, I really do, and I know you do too. And I think that it will. It's not going to be easy, but after everything we've been through, something's gotta give."


	19. After the Storm

I decided to come back to this story to wrap it up after having neglected it for so long, and will hopefully be able to do so with a couple of my other stories as well. I know a lot has happened on the show since I last updated, but none of it really matters because this whole thing is all about Nick and Greg anyway. Thanks to those of you who came back and read this ending, I hope you enjoy!

Nick and Greg had been back with their team at the crime lab for the last three months since getting off of the island. Three months isn't an extraordinarily long period of time. It was less than half the amount of time they had spent on the island. But in a CSI's world, three months might as well be three years with the lengthy hours and intensity of their cases. After the first month, things returned to normal fairly quickly, something Nick and Greg were as grateful for as their coworkers. Sara was still the only one who knew the full extent of their relationship and the whole story of what had happened on the island. Neither man thought it was the right time to try and explain what had happened or the fact that they were more than just roommates. They were more concerned with getting themselves back into the swing of things and contributing to the team in the same capacity they had before they were in that plane crash.

Ecklie had forced both Nick and Greg to see the department psychologist twice a week for their first month back and then once a week for the second month to ensure they were mentally able to be back at work. Nick initially tried to refuse, but Greg talked him into going to the first session, which Nick was immediately glad he did because the shrink thought that them getting back to work was the absolute best thing for them. Returning to their normal lives with any sort of routine, even the hectic one of a CSI, was the best way for them to move on from the events of the plane crash and their time on the island. So with the therapist's blessing, Nick and Greg were able to return to work, and it was almost as if they had never left at all.

And now, here they were, working a double murder in the alphabets with the rest of the team. They were processing the female body found in the dumpster while D.B. watched them intently, standing next to Brass.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Russell asked the police captain.

Brass looked up from his notes. "A drug deal turned robbery/homicide? Third one this week? Probably the same guy killing the dealer and buyer during the buy and taking the drugs and cash?"

Russell chuckled and shook his head. "No. Well, yeah, but that's not what I was referring to. I was talking about them," he said, motioning to Nick and Greg with his flashlight.

"What about them?" Brass asked with a frown.

"It's like they're connected by a string that's twenty feet long or so. When one of them moves one way, the other gets pulled that way too. They're totally in sync. They haven't said a word since they got here, and I bet you they could tell us what the other one found and what the other is thinking without having to verbally communicate at all."

Brass smirked. "And this surprises you? Your whole team is like that."

"Not like this. It's not surprising, seeing as how they spent seven months together on a deserted island with nothing but each other. It's just amazing what resulted. It's like they were put into a vacuum sealer and what came out is something that should have taken much longer to develop."

"You gotta remember they worked together for a helluva long time before they were even stuck anywhere together," Brass commented with a small laugh. "It's not like they were total strangers and are now the world's greatest crime fighting duo. They were on their way to being this good already."

Russell nodded once before going back to watching Nick and Greg thoughtfully. He had been very concerned about them returning to work due to their ordeal, but apparently there had been no real reason for his apprehension. He had been unsure in the beginning whether he should put them on cases together or not. He didn't know if they were sick of each other or dependent on one another. Their living together made him lean away from being sick of each other, so he went about case assignments as he always had. Sometimes they were together, and sometimes they weren't. Doing things how they had always been done before turned out to be the best policy for everything it seemed.

But Nick and Greg weren't able to do what they had always done before when it came to their relationship once they got home. They had never spent a lot of time together outside of work before, certainly nothing like they were now. It was taking some getting used to because while they were used to spending basically every waking hour with one another because of the island, they weren't used to having other things going on in their lives other than each other. They were both having some difficulty discerning how they should behave in these situations that weren't necessarily new to them, but were now happening in a context they had never been in before. Take, for example, how Greg was currently feeling upon learning that Nick had chased the suspect, who was armed, from his home down a dark alley in a gang neighborhood without blinking. A year ago, Greg wouldn't have been phased at all because he knew that's who Nick was and what he did. But now he wasn't just Nick's co-worker and friend. He was more than that. He was technically his boyfriend, although they had never used that label because to both of them it seemed juvenile without either one really knowing why. All Greg knew now was that he didn't feel the same way he had before about Nick running around chasing murderers, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do about it.

Greg watched through the glass walls of the trace lab as Nick received the results from Hodges, who appeared to be drawing the process out longer than he needed to, as he usually did. Greg could tell Nick was annoyed despite only being able to see the back of Nick's head. The Texan was leaning forward with both hands on the edge of the table, his shoulders hunched forward and his back tense. Greg had to fight to keep the smile from his face at the mental image of Nick's expression towards Hodges incessant rambling. Despite being tormented with the thought of Nick being gunned down in an alley by a suspect, Greg left the lay out room and made his way into Hodges' lab in an attempt to rescue Nick.

Nick didn't desert his post at the table when Greg walked in, but his face did soften and he even smiled upon seeing the younger man, which made Greg smile in return. It became clear to Greg that Nick had stopped listening to Hodges a long time ago and just hadn't had the energy to walk away.

"Do you have our results yet?" Greg asked Hodges while still looking at Nick, noticing the exhaustion all over the other man's body.

Hodges sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. "As I was just explaining to Nick here, I not only have your results, but have solved your case entirely. You see, the substance that was found on all of the victims-"

"You know who would love to hear this?" Greg interrupted. "Russell. He was really looking forward to your presentation of how all of these cases were linked."

Hodges stared at Greg, dumbfounded. "Are you serious? You don't care what it was?"

Greg shook his head. "We got the guy, it's pretty obvious he was the killer when he ran away when Brass and Nick showed up at his place. And thanks to Superman over here, he didn't get away."

Nick raised an eyebrow, not so much at Greg's comment but at the tone that it was said in. He could immediately tell there was something bothering Greg, and apparently he was the catalyst for whatever it was.

This, however, was lost on Hodges. "Well, Russell isn't here right now, you two are. So maybe when he gets back he can-"

"When I get back I can what?" Russell interjected as he stepped into the trace lab. "You know that I only aim to serve you David."

Neither Nick nor Greg could hold back a laugh. Nick finally dropped his hands from the table and stood so he was supporting all of his own weight, and if Greg didn't know any better he would have guessed that the older man was about to collapse at any minute. He knew Nick hadn't been sleeping well the last week or so; recurring nightmares had kept him from getting more than a few hours sleep each day.

Before Hodges could reply to Russell, the supervisor turned his attention to his two CSIs. "Why don't you guys head home? Brass got a confession out of the suspect, and I bet Hodges is about to give me the last piece of evidence that we need here to nail this son of a bitch. I'll see you guys tomorrow night."

Without any further discussion, Nick and Greg left the trace lab and headed straight for the locker room. They changed and grabbed their keys in record time and walked to their respective cars in silence.

"See ya at home," Nick said, and in doing so noticed Greg hesitate ever so slightly as he was getting into his car. He nodded slowly but didn't say anything as he closed the door and drove away.

Nick spent the drive home trying to figure out what was going on with Greg. He didn't seem angry or upset, but he didn't seem like his usual self either. He seemed distracted and almost sad. Nick knew all too well that the past three months had been anything but easy for the two of them. They were both thrilled to be back home and working with their team again, but there were lasting effects of the island that they were realizing were never going to fully leave them. The scars on Greg's body were a daily reminder to Nick of how he had almost lost him. Nick's new found tendency to give in to any little argument or spat between the two of them showed Greg just how scared the other man was of upsetting him and reminding Greg of how Nick had hurt him, so he was doing whatever he had to to keep him happy, which most of the time only pissed Greg off more. He hated that he had to keep assuring Nick that he wasn't going to change his mind about him, that he wasn't going to have a change of heart about all that had happened and decide to leave him. Greg had forgiven Nick, but Nick hadn't and probably never would forgive himself. And Greg knew it wasn't just about what had happened with Jenna. The fact that Nick had planned on killing Greg if his infection had gotten bad enough was haunting him and showed no signs of ever letting go.

Greg beat Nick home, so when he walked in Greg was already in the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. Nick silently sat down next to him, wrapping his left around tightly around Greg's slightly shaking shoulders and putting his right hand on Greg's thigh.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked softly in Greg's ear as he pulled the younger man against him.

Both men knew when something was bothering the other, and they also knew that neither of them liked to play games. Most of the time they knew exactly what was wrong with each other and could fix it without having to be told. They knew what to expect from one another. Nick knew that when Greg came home from a rough case, he didn't need to question Greg's or his own intentions when Greg slammed him up against the wall, kissing him hard, and removing both of their clothes without ever even saying a word. Nick didn't have to worry about taking advantage of Greg because he was well aware of what Greg wanted and needed and was willing to give him all of that and more. Greg knew that when Nick worked a case involving a child, he was going to find him sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking whiskey and smelling like cigarette smoke. Greg wouldn't lecture him or try and get him to quit smoking. Instead, he would sit on the floor next to him and tell him a story about when he was younger and did something outrageous, always managing to make Nick smile. And then they would pick each other up off the floor and crawl into bed together, the only place they ever really felt completely safe and at peace.

But sometimes they didn't know what was wrong, and instead of trying to figure it out on their own they would just ask. If the other man wanted to talk about it, they would. If they didn't, they wouldn't.

Greg dropped one hand onto Nick's and squeezed it firmly as he ran the other through his dirty blonde hair. "It's stupid," he mumbled, shaking his head slowly.

"I have a feeling it's something I did, so I bet you're right. I bet it is stupid, especially if I did it."

Greg couldn't help but smile. "I don't know why it's bothering me, it never did before. It's not something new. You do it all the time."

What was the matter finally dawned on Nick. "Me chasing after the suspect today," he said, more to himself than to Greg.

Greg sat up and away from Nick so he could look at him. Nick's arm dropped from Greg's shoulders, but he brought his hand to rest on the small of Greg's back.

"You're not a cop," Greg stated plainly.

"I used to be," Nick replied, without really knowing why. He knew that wasn't a good answer.

Greg rolled his eyes. "Look, I know the last thing you want is for me to be all overprotective and nag you about how you do your job, but I can't help but worry about you. With all the shit you've been through, you can't blame me."

"I never said I blamed you," Nick said.

"No, but you're still going to tell me not to worry and that you're fine, nothing happened and nothing will ever happen and everything is going to be okay."

Nick shook his head slowly. "No I'm not."

"Why not?" Greg asked, truly surprised.

"Because I don't want to lie to you," Nick answered. "I don't know that nothing bad is ever going to happen to me. I don't know that everything is going to be okay. But I do know that even if nothing else is okay, even if everything around us is falling apart, we'll be okay. You've proven that to me these last three months every single day. All I know for sure is that we're going to be okay."

"Not if you get killed chasing after a murder suspect," Greg retorted.

"Do you want me to promise to never do it again?"

Greg sighed. "No, because that would be a lie. You and I both know that."

Nick nodded. "Yeah, it would be."

Greg tore his eyes away from Nick. "I know you don't think it's a big deal, because it's something you do all the time, because it's part of your job. And I know you'll never stop, and I guess part of me doesn't want you to. Because it's part of your job, and your job is part of who you are. And I don't want to change who you are, even when you're driving me insane. I just can't promise that I'm not going to worry about it, just like you can't promise that you won't ever do it again."

Nick leaned forward until his lips pressed against Greg's temple. "I don't want you to promise me anything other than that you'll never give up on me," he whispered.

Greg tried to move so he could look at Nick, but the other man moved his head past Greg's so he was hugging him tightly. Greg wrapped his left arm around Nick's waist and gripped Nick's left bicep with his right hand, steadying both himself and Nick.

"Why would I give up on you?" Greg asked.

Nick laughed dryly. "Why wouldn't you? I've given you every reason to."

"You know that's not true. You've given me strength, faith, happiness, a chance to start over in a life I've always wanted. You've given me everything I never thought I'd have, everything I thought I never deserved."

"That's my point," Nick said. "You deserve-"

"Do you love me?" Greg asked, cutting Nick off because he knew exactly what he was going to say and knew there wasn't much he could say to keep him from saying it.

Nick pulled back so he was once again looking Greg in the eyes. "You know I do."

"Then whatever else you were going to say doesn't matter. I don't want to be with someone who's going to coddle me and sit at home so I'll never have to worry about them. I don't want someone who agrees with me on everything and worships the ground I walk on and drops everything at my say so. I want someone who is going to challenge me, make me a better person, and who won't let me do something they know isn't good for me. And if I do it anyway, I want someone who is going to say they told me so while still picking me up after I fall. I want someone who is strong and brave and relentless, even if that makes us clash at times. I want you, Nick, and only you. I think after everything, I deserve to have what I want."

"Of course you do," Nick agreed. He brushed his hand through Greg's soft hair and sighed. "I know you're sick of me freaking out every other day, but in my head I think it's for your own good. I think that if I keep giving you an out you'll eventually take it and will be happier. I just want you to be happy, and I know that doing what I'm doing all the time isn't going to accomplish that. So I'm sorry."

Greg smiled. "I don't need you to do anything special to make me happy. I just need you, and all the insanity that you entail." Nick laughed, and the sound made Greg's smile widen. "But it's like you said. Even if nothing else is going well, we'll always be okay. You're never going to get sick of me and leave me for some hot young blonde chick, and I'm never going to regret being with you. It appears we're stuck with each other."

Greg was still smiling when Nick pressed their lips together, kissing him soundly. Greg slowly moved back and up the bed, stretching out as he moved and pulling Nick with him until the older man's body was covering his own. Nick's fingers trailed under Greg's shirt and over warm skin only briefly before he removed it from being in his way altogether. Greg responded by arching up against Nick and pulling his shirt over his head before ridding them of their jeans as well. Nick moved from Greg's mouth to kissing his neck, focusing on the junction between his ear and neck that he knew drove him wild. Greg rubbed the knuckles of his left hand against Nick's ribs, eliciting a shudder that he felt ripple through the other man all the way to the back of his thigh that Greg was gripping with his other hand.

"God, I fucking love you," Nick breathed against Greg's neck as he slowly ground his hips against Greg's.

The younger man threaded his fingers through Nick's hair and tiled his head so their dark eyes met and smiled at him wickedly as he replied, "Prove it."

Greg awoke from a deep sleep when he felt Nick's breathing quicken under his arm. Greg's right arm was stretched along the line of their pillows, with Nick using his arm instead of the pillow to rest on. Greg's chest was pressed flush against Nick's back with his left arm draped over Nick's side and wrapped securely around him. He could feel Nick's heart racing as well, and lifted his head from behind Nick's shoulder to see if he had woken up from a nightmare, but saw that his eyes were still closed. While Greg was internally debating whether or not to wake him up, Nick's eyes shot open, his breath catching in his throat and his body jolting as if he had been electrocuted.

"You're okay," Greg whispered in his ear. "It was just a nightmare."

Nick grabbed at himself until he found Greg's hand resting on his chest and threaded their fingers together. "It's not me I'm worried about," he drawled, his voice thick with sleep, accentuating his accent. He rested his forehead against Greg's forearm and slowly got his breathing under control.

Greg kissed the back of his neck softly and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Same dream?" he asked.

Nick nodded. "It won't go away, I can't stop it. How I do it changes, but never the end result. I always end up killing you." His voice broke at the end, and Greg felt a few tears fall against his arm.

Greg tightened his grip on the other man as best as he could. "It didn't come to that. You saved my life. Without you, I would have died. And even if you had had to do that, it would have been because you didn't have any other choice. It would have been the right thing to do."

"Hurting you can never be the right thing," Nick managed to say through the lump in his throat.

"Sometimes it is," Greg said softly, alternating between speaking and kissing Nick's neck and shoulders soothingly. "Like when you told me about Jenna."

"You told me I should have never told you that," Nick replied.

"That doesn't mean it wasn't the right thing to do," Greg responded. "In fact, it proves that it was the right thing to do. Because it was the hard thing to do. And that's what you're good at. Making the tough decision that nobody else is willing to make when you know it's the right thing to do. And that's why I love you so much. You do what needs to be done for everyone else without ever thinking about what it'll do to you."

Nick let out a shaky breath. "I just want the nightmares about it to stop."

"They will eventually. Just like all the other ones stopped."

"The other ones didn't stop until I started sleeping next to you. So how do I get this one to stop?"

Greg removed his hand from Nick's grip so he could stroke his side, something he knew to always help calm Nick down. "I wish I knew the answer to that. I think you have to forgive yourself for what happened to me, because it wasn't your fault. You can't keep holding this stuff over your own head."

"You should have been a shrink," Nick mumbled, but Greg could see a smile tugging at his lips.

"What good would what have done me? I'd have lost my license by now for sleeping with me extremely good looking Texan patient."

Nick rolled over so he was facing Greg. "Who is a complete headcase."

Greg nodded. "Yeah, he is. But it keeps things interesting."

Nick smiled as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Greg wrapped his right arm around Nick's shoulders, and Nick settled against Greg with his head against his chest and his arm wrapped around his slim waist. He could feel Greg's scars, but fought to push those memories out of his mind.

"Close your eyes," Greg whispered as he traced random patterns across Nick's back. "Go back to sleep."

Nick shook his head and sighed against Greg. "I don't want to. I like this better."

Instead of arguing, Greg kissed the top of his head and held him tighter. He knew Nick would fall asleep again eventually, and he also knew that he would probably have another nightmare. And that was okay. Greg had his own nightmares, and Nick was always there to soothe him afterwards. Maybe it was part of their lives now after the island that was going to stay with them forever. They both hoped that wasn't the case, but if so, they knew they would be able to handle it. They were fairly certain that they would be able to handle anything at this point, as long as they could continue to count on each other.

If nothing else, they had learned two things on that island: to watch the water, not the sky; and that they trusted each other more than anything. 


End file.
